> Its amazing that none of the replies (so far) have pointed out something in the very article that spawned this thread, the status of women and minorities.

It's not that surprising; Hacker News comments tend not to sympathize with victims of harassment, sexism, or racism when stories about those topics come up. So it's not surprising that it doesn't become the focus of the thread here, since it's not the lede in the story.

> f you read the article it goes on to note that was because of sexual harrassment and his attitude toward gay men. These are bread and butter union issues.

In theory, yes. In practice, it depends on the workplace. If the workplace is mostly men who don't really have a problem with harassment of women, the union won't either, and women aren't going to have a great time there. That's sadly pretty common in blue-collar unions[0].

[0] eg: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/19/us/ford-chica...

Fair enough to your second point, though I honestly doubt its more or less common in working class unions vs white collars. Sexual harassment doesn't seem to be something that respects class lines as much as people would like it to. I'm still waiting on a "This is what a Trump Voter looks like" profile pieces that covers, say, an intellectual living and working in Cambridge MA, or an upper middle class manager from Sugarland in Houston.

> though I honestly doubt its more or less common in working class unions vs white collars. Sexual harassment doesn't seem to be something that respects class lines as much as people would like it to.

Oh, I never said that it did. I'm referring to blue-collar jobs like Rust Belt manufacturing specifically because that's a historically heavily unionized industry where the workforce is disproportionately male and white.

Indeed, one of the reasons for why tech unionization became a discussed topic was the Susan Fowler revelations about Uber.

I was unaware of this, thanks for that.

That isn't a union issue. That is an EEOC / State labor law issue.

what do you thing "labor law" refers to? Union representatives are the very people who often litigate those issues before NLRB and state boards.