3 ms·

>> “you just have to do what your employer dictates or go elsewhere.” Isn't that pretty much exactly the case? No one in software is going to go to the trouble

>> “you just have to do what your employer dictates or go elsewhere.” Isn't that pretty much exactly the case? No one in software is going to go to the trouble of unionizing.

carapace 3y ago
I used to think we didn't need unions and then it came out that dozens of the big tech companies were colluding with each other to limit wages and job mobility. https://web.archive.org/web/20200304045453/https://pando.com/tag/techtopus/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200304045453/https://pando.com... The suits ripped off the engineers to the tune of US$8,000,000,000 (est.)
toomuchtodo 3y ago
Too early to tell if white collar is going to just roll over tbh. I’m more focused on lower income earned organizing at the moment due to the increased quality of life for those folks. It’s fairly straightforward to notify the NLRB you want to hold an election. Just drive forward the effort if you believe in not being held hostage by employers in the aggregate. Remember, those who don’t support unions are a small minority (30% in the US). I see parallels to when HN folks confidently expounded about Dropbox not being a real business as they went on their way to becoming a large enterprise. How? You ignore the talk and naysayers and instead, default to action. Why listen to people who can’t stop you? Your agency and quality of life is more important than their opinion.
Nullabillity 3y ago
Found the VC alt.
burkaman 3y ago
There certainly isn't a mass unionization movement in software yet, but there are some recent cases, it isn't "no one". Most recently Grindr formed a union, and company leadership retaliated by telling all software engineers to move to Chicago within the next couple months or quit. Alphabet and Kickstarter are other notable examples.

3 ms·

>> “you just have to do what your employer dictates or go elsewhere.” Isn't that pretty much exactly the case? No one in software is going to go to the trouble

by osigurdson 3y ago

>> “you just have to do what your employer dictates or go elsewhere.” Isn't that pretty much exactly the case? No one in software is going to go to the trouble of unionizing.

carapace 3y ago
I used to think we didn't need unions and then it came out that dozens of the big tech companies were colluding with each other to limit wages and job mobility. https://web.archive.org/web/20200304045453/https://pando.com/tag/techtopus/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200304045453/https://pando.com... The suits ripped off the engineers to the tune of US$8,000,000,000 (est.)
toomuchtodo 3y ago
Too early to tell if white collar is going to just roll over tbh. I’m more focused on lower income earned organizing at the moment due to the increased quality of life for those folks. It’s fairly straightforward to notify the NLRB you want to hold an election. Just drive forward the effort if you believe in not being held hostage by employers in the aggregate. Remember, those who don’t support unions are a small minority (30% in the US). I see parallels to when HN folks confidently expounded about Dropbox not being a real business as they went on their way to becoming a large enterprise. How? You ignore the talk and naysayers and instead, default to action. Why listen to people who can’t stop you? Your agency and quality of life is more important than their opinion.
Nullabillity 3y ago
Found the VC alt.
burkaman 3y ago
There certainly isn't a mass unionization movement in software yet, but there are some recent cases, it isn't "no one". Most recently Grindr formed a union, and company leadership retaliated by telling all software engineers to move to Chicago within the next couple months or quit. Alphabet and Kickstarter are other notable examples.