6 ms·

There are some tech worker unions (like at NYT) but not enough. A relevant book that recently came out but I have not read is You Deserve a Tech Union by Ethan

by raybb 3y ago

There are some tech worker unions (like at NYT) but not enough. A relevant book that recently came out but I have not read is You Deserve a Tech Union by Ethan Marcotte https://abookapart.com/products/you-deserve-a-tech-union https://abookapart.com/products/you-deserve-a-tech-union

toomuchtodo 3y ago
https://code-cwa.org/ https://code-cwa.org/ https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1706 https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1706 ("Treasury Department Releases First-Of-Its-Kind Report on Benefits of Unions to the U.S. Economy") https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/10/us-union-workers-report-congress https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/10/us-union-wor... ("Feel the benefit: union workers receive far better pay and rights, Congress finds") https://newrepublic.com/post/175274/gallup-poll-two-thirds-americans-support-unions https://newrepublic.com/post/175274/gallup-poll-two-thirds-a... ("Poll: Majority of Americans Support Unions and Support Strikes | A new Gallup poll shows Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of labor unions.") https://www.axios.com/2023/04/27/unions-tech-industry-labor-youtube-sega https://www.axios.com/2023/04/27/unions-tech-industry-labor-... ("Push to unionize tech industry makes advances") https://www.axios.com/2022/06/15/microsoft-union-truce-techs-war-labor https://www.axios.com/2022/06/15/microsoft-union-truce-techs... ("Microsoft, meanwhile, announced last year that it would not stand in the way of any workers who wanted to unionize.") https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-first-labor-union-video-game-workers-zenimax-studios/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-first-labor-union-vid... ("Microsoft recognizes its first U.S. labor union as video game testers organize") > Microsoft president Brad Smith has twice in recent weeks told me that Microsoft is simply doing what it sees fit for its own relationship with workers and not trying to push others. However, labor leaders see Microsoft's move as a potential model for others. > "I won’t say that it was completely easy for Microsoft to do this but they did it," Christopher Shelton, president of Communications Workers of America, the union organizing at Activision, told Axios. (last I checked, Microsoft owns Linkedin, but I could be mistaken; I am not uneducated on the challenges and downsides to organizing, but am also not so uneducated and inexperienced to think the power imbalance doesn't require improvement; maybe an individual can do better solo occasionally, but that's luck and not what the data shows)
gabyar 3y ago
My first job was at a tech company with a union. Boeing. It was ridiculously bad. I've never worked with less talented people. One of my coworkers did nothing, at all, for 2 years. But with 17 years of experience, he couldn't be fired. I carried the team, but they couldn't pay me what I was worth or promote me. I left as soon as I could.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  I've worked at a few non-union shops that were the same way. I don't think the existence of a union is a large factor in that regard. I think the size of the company is.
- BazookaMusic 3y ago
  Maybe the issue was with company being a dinosaur instead of it having a union?
- Atrine 3y ago
  Was it the union that was the problem or was it that you were working for a Dinosaur that hadn't been required to operate in today's high-tech world? Experience has shown that AT&T and Disney are the same sort of thing when working in tech, yet they don't have unions. But what they do all have in common - they are old companies that formed well before the internet.
  - hondo77 3y ago
    Disney is a very big company. Maybe there are parts of it that our dinosaur-like but there are other parts that are doing the sharpening of the cutting edge. They'll fall behind every so often but then they catch back up and have been known to pass ahead.
- mistrial9 3y ago
  you are associating a top-ten US Defense contractor with "being in a tech union"
- monero-xmr 3y ago
  People love simple answers to complex problems. Unions are such an example. The core idea behind a union makes sense - it's legalised extortion. Unions have codified in the law the ability for everyone in the union to hold the owner of property at ransom until they meet the union's demands. The only counterweight is the threat of bankruptcy, which ruins everything for everyone, but because the ideology of labor is very anti-business, they don't really care about that anyway. Very few intelligent, educated people are part of unions, so they have no idea how they actually work. As I am against extortion, I am against unions.
ecshafer 3y ago
The biography for Ethan marcotte says he is responsible for “responsive web design”, which looks like he made wrote some book in 2010 about the topic. But didn’t actually write the browser code, specifications, frameworks or anything that actually allows responsive web design. Not was he involved in any of the first examples. Kind of tangential but that seems like a resume stuffer at best and stolen valor at worst.
- samsolomon 3y ago
  He coined the term and wrote a lot of the early guidance for designing responsively for the web. Most of that is common knowledge now, but back in 2010 he was definitely on the cutting edge.

by raybb 3y ago

toomuchtodo 3y ago

https://code-cwa.org/ https://code-cwa.org/ https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1706 https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1706 ("Treasury Department Releases First-Of-Its-Kind Report on Benefits of Unions to the U.S. Economy") https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/10/us-union-workers-report-congress https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/10/us-union-wor... ("Feel the benefit: union workers receive far better pay and rights, Congress finds") https://newrepublic.com/post/175274/gallup-poll-two-thirds-americans-support-unions https://newrepublic.com/post/175274/gallup-poll-two-thirds-a... ("Poll: Majority of Americans Support Unions and Support Strikes | A new Gallup poll shows Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of labor unions.") https://www.axios.com/2023/04/27/unions-tech-industry-labor-youtube-sega https://www.axios.com/2023/04/27/unions-tech-industry-labor-... ("Push to unionize tech industry makes advances") https://www.axios.com/2022/06/15/microsoft-union-truce-techs-war-labor https://www.axios.com/2022/06/15/microsoft-union-truce-techs... ("Microsoft, meanwhile, announced last year that it would not stand in the way of any workers who wanted to unionize.") https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-first-labor-union-video-game-workers-zenimax-studios/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-first-labor-union-vid... ("Microsoft recognizes its first U.S. labor union as video game testers organize") > Microsoft president Brad Smith has twice in recent weeks told me that Microsoft is simply doing what it sees fit for its own relationship with workers and not trying to push others. However, labor leaders see Microsoft's move as a potential model for others. > "I won’t say that it was completely easy for Microsoft to do this but they did it," Christopher Shelton, president of Communications Workers of America, the union organizing at Activision, told Axios. (last I checked, Microsoft owns Linkedin, but I could be mistaken; I am not uneducated on the challenges and downsides to organizing, but am also not so uneducated and inexperienced to think the power imbalance doesn't require improvement; maybe an individual can do better solo occasionally, but that's luck and not what the data shows)

gabyar 3y ago

My first job was at a tech company with a union. Boeing. It was ridiculously bad. I've never worked with less talented people. One of my coworkers did nothing, at all, for 2 years. But with 17 years of experience, he couldn't be fired. I carried the team, but they couldn't pay me what I was worth or promote me. I left as soon as I could.

JohnFen 3y ago
I've worked at a few non-union shops that were the same way. I don't think the existence of a union is a large factor in that regard. I think the size of the company is.
BazookaMusic 3y ago
Maybe the issue was with company being a dinosaur instead of it having a union?
Atrine 3y ago
Was it the union that was the problem or was it that you were working for a Dinosaur that hadn't been required to operate in today's high-tech world? Experience has shown that AT&T and Disney are the same sort of thing when working in tech, yet they don't have unions. But what they do all have in common - they are old companies that formed well before the internet.
- hondo77 3y ago
  Disney is a very big company. Maybe there are parts of it that our dinosaur-like but there are other parts that are doing the sharpening of the cutting edge. They'll fall behind every so often but then they catch back up and have been known to pass ahead.
mistrial9 3y ago
you are associating a top-ten US Defense contractor with "being in a tech union"
monero-xmr 3y ago
People love simple answers to complex problems. Unions are such an example. The core idea behind a union makes sense - it's legalised extortion. Unions have codified in the law the ability for everyone in the union to hold the owner of property at ransom until they meet the union's demands. The only counterweight is the threat of bankruptcy, which ruins everything for everyone, but because the ideology of labor is very anti-business, they don't really care about that anyway. Very few intelligent, educated people are part of unions, so they have no idea how they actually work. As I am against extortion, I am against unions.

ecshafer 3y ago

The biography for Ethan marcotte says he is responsible for “responsive web design”, which looks like he made wrote some book in 2010 about the topic. But didn’t actually write the browser code, specifications, frameworks or anything that actually allows responsive web design. Not was he involved in any of the first examples. Kind of tangential but that seems like a resume stuffer at best and stolen valor at worst.

samsolomon 3y ago
He coined the term and wrote a lot of the early guidance for designing responsively for the web. Most of that is common knowledge now, but back in 2010 he was definitely on the cutting edge.