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Those techies had years in which to organize their workplace under US labor law to forestall exactly this kind of outcome. For the past 20 years, there was no g

Those techies had years in which to organize their workplace under US labor law to forestall exactly this kind of outcome. For the past 20 years, there was no group of employees on earth with more latent power than US tech workers, but this very fact blinded them to the possibility that they might ever lose this power. What feeble efforts there were at collective action were organized around divisive "social justice" topics rather than securing a permanent voice for labor in tech company governance and decision making. Twitter workers are highly intelligent and the current pity party for them is unseemly. Everyone in the industry saw a day coming when the music would stop, whether because of economic changes or automation, but no one chose to act.

kjkjadksj 4y ago
Don't blame labor for failing to unionize when media has been filling the room with anti union sentiment for a century.
dangerwill 4y ago
Any time a whiff of union talk for tech workers comes up, the industry recoils in abject horror driven by many years of anti-union propaganda ("unions = evil" or "how DARE you well paid, lazy programmers ask for even more"). Especially here in HN given its hyper-capitalist slant. I think it's a bit disingenuous to put all of the blame on tech workers
- idlewords 4y ago
  Is the argument here that capital should have been more supportive and nurturing? Imagine if the OG labor movement had been such hothouse flowers.
  - dangerwill 4y ago
    No, the argument is that we are on a forum run by and for venture capital, so criticizing labor for not being activist enough is out of step with where we are.
- cr4nberry 4y ago
  > Any time a whiff of union talk for tech workers comes up, the industry recoils in abject horror driven by many years of anti-union propaganda ("unions = evil" or "how DARE you well paid, lazy programmers ask for even more"). I mean, we definitely could. They'd be seriously fucked if we did. It's a wonder it hasn't happened yet
DesiLurker 4y ago
So its our fault for not making a union? Also nothing to do with 40 year decline in consumer rights & stagnated wages & heavy influence of money in politics. Also, to quote Stephen Colbert, its the ribcage's fault that victim got knifed.
- luckylion 4y ago
  The "stagnated wages" of SV engineers? What?
- sklivvz1971 4y ago
  > its our fault for not making a union Surely a union would help avoid this exactly kind of things, I can assure you. Once I kept my job thanks to a union when there were mass layoffs at a company I worked for. Also, a union would probably have negotiated something better than an "at will" contract, which I assume Twitter employees are bound to.

kjkjadksj 4y ago

Don't blame labor for failing to unionize when media has been filling the room with anti union sentiment for a century.

dangerwill 4y ago

Any time a whiff of union talk for tech workers comes up, the industry recoils in abject horror driven by many years of anti-union propaganda ("unions = evil" or "how DARE you well paid, lazy programmers ask for even more"). Especially here in HN given its hyper-capitalist slant. I think it's a bit disingenuous to put all of the blame on tech workers

idlewords 4y ago
Is the argument here that capital should have been more supportive and nurturing? Imagine if the OG labor movement had been such hothouse flowers.
- dangerwill 4y ago
  No, the argument is that we are on a forum run by and for venture capital, so criticizing labor for not being activist enough is out of step with where we are.
cr4nberry 4y ago
> Any time a whiff of union talk for tech workers comes up, the industry recoils in abject horror driven by many years of anti-union propaganda ("unions = evil" or "how DARE you well paid, lazy programmers ask for even more"). I mean, we definitely could. They'd be seriously fucked if we did. It's a wonder it hasn't happened yet

DesiLurker 4y ago

So its our fault for not making a union? Also nothing to do with 40 year decline in consumer rights & stagnated wages & heavy influence of money in politics. Also, to quote Stephen Colbert, its the ribcage's fault that victim got knifed.

luckylion 4y ago
The "stagnated wages" of SV engineers? What?
sklivvz1971 4y ago
> its our fault for not making a union Surely a union would help avoid this exactly kind of things, I can assure you. Once I kept my job thanks to a union when there were mass layoffs at a company I worked for. Also, a union would probably have negotiated something better than an "at will" contract, which I assume Twitter employees are bound to.