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This will also make it harder to unionize. Historically, having your coworkers together in one place was a prerequisite for collective action. If call center wo

by pradn 4y ago

This will also make it harder to unionize. Historically, having your coworkers together in one place was a prerequisite for collective action. If call center workers are atomized, even a thin hope of that will perish.

coffeeblack 4y ago
I don’t think so. All that is needed is a different way to organize. Unions need online social networks for workers to meet and communicate. That would make it impossible for companies to stop unionization.
- Mountain_Skies 4y ago
  IIRC, Ralph Nader once proposed a .union TLD that would mirror each employer's .com domain. If you worked for Amazon, you'd know to go to amazon.union to find out about the company union, or if it didn't exist, about unionizing activities. I'm sure there would be many implementation details that would need to be worked out, but it seemed like a pretty good way to empower labor at each company.
  - koheripbal 4y ago
    That would give monopoly power to one union. Monopolies always abuse their power.
    - oplaadpunt 4y ago
      I think that would fall under the implementations details for me. It'd be a nice idea to show a listing of all registered unions when going to the amazon.union domain, with further subdomains for specific unions. (xxx.amazon.union, yyy.amazon.union, etc). I don't think this would lead to any monopolization of power.
    - Mountain_Skies 4y ago
      The site could contain links to all unions that represent employees in that company. Not sure I've ever heard of any individual employee being represented by multiple unions, even if there are multiple unions covering different groups within a company, but I guess it's possible.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
jdeibele 4y ago
That was my first thought. If you're at a call center, you can talk to co-workers in the break room or bathrooms or on public transit or in the parking lot. If you're working remotely and every one else is doing the same, your only communications method will be company-owned and searchable. Amazon will make it difficult to know where Jeff B. or Mary G. lives, what their last name is, etc. No making connections on Facebook or whatever. Anybody asking a co-worker for personal contact information would certainly be terminated immediately.
- pradn 4y ago
  I work at Google, and when we came back to the office, we started having all sorts of hallway conversations about well-being and pandemic stress. If we were talking during the work-from-home period, we would have raised an alarm. Each of us had assumed we were the only ones struggling.

by pradn 4y ago

coffeeblack 4y ago

I don’t think so. All that is needed is a different way to organize. Unions need online social networks for workers to meet and communicate. That would make it impossible for companies to stop unionization.

Mountain_Skies 4y ago
IIRC, Ralph Nader once proposed a .union TLD that would mirror each employer's .com domain. If you worked for Amazon, you'd know to go to amazon.union to find out about the company union, or if it didn't exist, about unionizing activities. I'm sure there would be many implementation details that would need to be worked out, but it seemed like a pretty good way to empower labor at each company.
- koheripbal 4y ago
  That would give monopoly power to one union. Monopolies always abuse their power.
  - oplaadpunt 4y ago
    I think that would fall under the implementations details for me. It'd be a nice idea to show a listing of all registered unions when going to the amazon.union domain, with further subdomains for specific unions. (xxx.amazon.union, yyy.amazon.union, etc). I don't think this would lead to any monopolization of power.
  - Mountain_Skies 4y ago
    The site could contain links to all unions that represent employees in that company. Not sure I've ever heard of any individual employee being represented by multiple unions, even if there are multiple unions covering different groups within a company, but I guess it's possible.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

jdeibele 4y ago

That was my first thought. If you're at a call center, you can talk to co-workers in the break room or bathrooms or on public transit or in the parking lot. If you're working remotely and every one else is doing the same, your only communications method will be company-owned and searchable. Amazon will make it difficult to know where Jeff B. or Mary G. lives, what their last name is, etc. No making connections on Facebook or whatever. Anybody asking a co-worker for personal contact information would certainly be terminated immediately.

pradn 4y ago
I work at Google, and when we came back to the office, we started having all sorts of hallway conversations about well-being and pandemic stress. If we were talking during the work-from-home period, we would have raised an alarm. Each of us had assumed we were the only ones struggling.