4 ms·

Serious question, why don't Googlers unionize? They bring in far, far, far more revenue than they cost in salary. You'd be foolish not to leverage this collecti

Serious question, why don't Googlers unionize? They bring in far, far, far more revenue than they cost in salary. You'd be foolish not to leverage this collectively....

galdosdi 3y ago
They did. If you still work at Google, join https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org/ https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org/
ryandrake 3y ago
My guess is it's the same reason so many HN people are against unions: Everyone imagines they are the One Special Talented "Captain Of Industry"-Like Skilled Negotiator Person who would not benefit from the union and/or make less money in a union. "Unions are fine for those lower-level workers, the little people who aren't in as high demand as I am, and who can't negotiate like I can. I'd surely be worse off with one!" -- and when everyone thinks this about themselves, the whole lot of them fails to unionize.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Yep that's me
- bsdpufferfish 3y ago
  Yes and it's true. Anyone who has ever dedicated themselves to their work for a year or so will be in that category.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Or someone with no job yet but good qualifications for one (in college etc).
- fulladder 3y ago
  For tech (and finance) there are a great many people who make an extreme comp demand and the company just shrugs and says "ok, we'll pay it." Before you put your fate in the hands of some union boss, you should consider trying it for yourself.
Exoristos 3y ago
A guild / professional association, perhaps; but forming a run-of-the-mill labor union would almost certainly lower SWE salaries and benefits across the sector in the end. (Not talking about just Google here.)
- JeffSnazz 3y ago
  > but forming a run-of-the-mill labor union would almost certainly lower SWE salaries and benefits across the sector in the end. How would that work? Wouldn't reasoning about incentives here point in exactly the opposite direction? Not to toot our own horn too deeply, but while a SWE might be fungible, we're in a line of work that's difficult to scab through. Google really doesn't have much leverage over their employees compared to other labor conflicts I've read about throughout history....
  - Exoristos 3y ago
    SWEs are overcompensated, and offering big companies a single lever (the leadership of a sector-wide labor union) to push against all of us would be only too handy for them; negotiations would have nowhere to go but down.
    - JeffSnazz 3y ago
      SWEs are overcompensated? How do you figure? The revenue figures per-engineer tell the exact opposite story. > the leadership of a sector-wide labor union) to push against all of us would be only too handy for them; negotiations would have nowhere to go but down. I literally cannot follow this train of thought—surely, having a single collective negotiator is the only way to prevent this exact scenario. Regardless, you seem to be conflating regular unions with trade unions. They're different, they serve different roles—arguably, I think we need trade unions far more than regular ones if we want to do anything useful as a country in the next few decades—but in all situations having a single-negotiator is the only way to stop engineers from being pitted against each other.
      - 3y ago

Serious question, why don't Googlers unionize? They bring in far, far, far more revenue than they cost in salary. You'd be foolish not to leverage this collectively....

galdosdi 3y ago

They did. If you still work at Google, join https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org/ https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org/

ryandrake 3y ago

My guess is it's the same reason so many HN people are against unions: Everyone imagines they are the One Special Talented "Captain Of Industry"-Like Skilled Negotiator Person who would not benefit from the union and/or make less money in a union. "Unions are fine for those lower-level workers, the little people who aren't in as high demand as I am, and who can't negotiate like I can. I'd surely be worse off with one!" -- and when everyone thinks this about themselves, the whole lot of them fails to unionize.

hot_gril 3y ago
Yep that's me
bsdpufferfish 3y ago
Yes and it's true. Anyone who has ever dedicated themselves to their work for a year or so will be in that category.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Or someone with no job yet but good qualifications for one (in college etc).
fulladder 3y ago
For tech (and finance) there are a great many people who make an extreme comp demand and the company just shrugs and says "ok, we'll pay it." Before you put your fate in the hands of some union boss, you should consider trying it for yourself.

Exoristos 3y ago

A guild / professional association, perhaps; but forming a run-of-the-mill labor union would almost certainly lower SWE salaries and benefits across the sector in the end. (Not talking about just Google here.)

JeffSnazz 3y ago
> but forming a run-of-the-mill labor union would almost certainly lower SWE salaries and benefits across the sector in the end. How would that work? Wouldn't reasoning about incentives here point in exactly the opposite direction? Not to toot our own horn too deeply, but while a SWE might be fungible, we're in a line of work that's difficult to scab through. Google really doesn't have much leverage over their employees compared to other labor conflicts I've read about throughout history....
- Exoristos 3y ago
  SWEs are overcompensated, and offering big companies a single lever (the leadership of a sector-wide labor union) to push against all of us would be only too handy for them; negotiations would have nowhere to go but down.
  - JeffSnazz 3y ago
    SWEs are overcompensated? How do you figure? The revenue figures per-engineer tell the exact opposite story. > the leadership of a sector-wide labor union) to push against all of us would be only too handy for them; negotiations would have nowhere to go but down. I literally cannot follow this train of thought—surely, having a single collective negotiator is the only way to prevent this exact scenario. Regardless, you seem to be conflating regular unions with trade unions. They're different, they serve different roles—arguably, I think we need trade unions far more than regular ones if we want to do anything useful as a country in the next few decades—but in all situations having a single-negotiator is the only way to stop engineers from being pitted against each other.
    - 3y ago