4 ms·
when I startup company I was at years ago started failing and laying people off, someone proposed unionizing to prevent it. In the serious discussions that fol
by diydsp 12y ago
when I startup company I was at years ago started failing and laying people off, someone proposed unionizing to prevent it. In the serious discussions that followed, many reasons came out. I don't agree with them all, but these were floated by people at that time:
1. Unions are about more than simply the jobs 'n' wages. There's lots of favoritism, a whole new layer of politics beyond the question of "who works enough to earn their paycheck".
2. There was insufficient inertia. A chicken and egg problem. No one was used to unions and no one knew exactly what to do or how to determine if it was being done properly.
3. Some people were uncomfortable having a more exact spotlight shone on their work. In more physical, less individualized jobs like plumbing, pipe-fitting, etc., people are more interchangeable and less mysterious. Programmers at this company preferred to endure the risk of layoff rather than have their art/handiwork/craftwork get recast as something that another individual could do just as well.
4. At least in the startup we were in, failure was more of an anticipated outcome than other professions. Unlike a tradesman, most of us didn't invest our whole lives in a set of skills with a known or "background" level of demand. iow, many of us just said "fuck it" and went to a new startup or a new white collar job.
5. Elitism: At least some people viewed unions as something "lower-class" people have to do to earn their wages. Some people at this company felt they were of high class and didn't need "lower" themselves by unionized. (yes the cognitive dissonance here is strong).
Personally, I still don't know the answer, but it can only help us to give these objections some thought from time to time in considering the next several decades of our trade.
- jbuzbee 12y ago"when I [sic] startup company I was at years ago started failing and laying people off, someone proposed unionizing to prevent it." Attitudes like this is why I feel unions are harmful. The company is failing, but people want a union to step in to prevent cost-cutting via layoffs? Sounds like a sure-fire way to destroy any hope the company has from recovering. Now everyone loses their their jobs. Union-mentality seems totally divorced from business sense. Union employees demands take precedence over business wants and needs - e.g. seniority takes precedence over competence, wages forced to be higher than competitors who pay market-rates, etc. It's a long-term spiral into company failure
- gaius 12y agoI'll wager the management made sure they were looked after, no cost cutting for them until the coffers were bare.
- jbuzbee 12y agoPossibly. But that's a different issue. The owners of the company, unlike the employees, have invested their personal hard-earned savings in the venture. It's their responsibility to be monitoring management to make sure that funds are spent appropriately.
- gaius 12y agoNot as simple as that. A founder invests his savings, but that might be less than the total salary difference for employees and the market rate. So they have given up more than he has invested, but for a fraction of a fraction of his stake. How is that a sensible deal for them? There needs to be some balance.
- jbuzbee 12y ago"A founder invests his savings, but that might be less than the total salary difference for employees and the market rate [...] There needs to be some balance" Irrelevant. The employer made an offer of employment. The employee weighed the pros-and-cons of the offer and accepted or not. "Balance" makes no more sense the the kid I pay to mow my lawn asking for a balance between my household and himself. "How is that a sensible deal for them?" Not for me or you to say. Each and every employee needs to take personal responsibility and determine whether or not a employment "deal" is sensible for their situation. If an employer is making all non-sensible offers, they won't attract a quality workforce and will fail. Market-force in action. Happens every day.