Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Across the Tech Industry

Re:Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Acr... by mc32 on Monday December 10, 2018 @05:46PM (#18651800)

Unionization is not a panacea. Unionization may be able to preserve jobs and defend employees from employer strongarming tactics but on the converse, it can protect employees who would have otherwise been fired for improprieties and other less attractive ideas as well as those simply not pulling their weight any longer.

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Re:Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Acr... by mschuster91 on Monday December 10, 2018 @05:51PM (#18651835)

> but on the converse, it can protect employees who would have otherwise been fired for improprieties

I know of these cases in the US, but that wouldn't fly in a German union. They only stand up for you when the employer acts out of reason, but not if you're fired with a valid reason (e.g. sexual misconduct). Maybe a look at the German system could be of help here, though I sympathize more with the French model as their unions sometimes go the extra way for the employees.

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Re:Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Acr... by walshemj on Monday December 10, 2018 @06:25PM (#18652040)

Absolutely UK unions are like lawyers in this regard you represent the member even if you know they will be found guilty, to make sure their rights are protected and more importantly to "keep the company honest" as one senior manager said to me once.

I suspect that Mr Danmore (x googler) did not get fired fairly as google did not I suspect follow its internal procedures to the letter.

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Re:Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Acr... by commandlinefan on Monday December 10, 2018 @05:50PM (#18651826)

There's good and there's bad to unions, absolutely. There's good and there's bad to lack of unions, too, though. At some point, the negatives of unionization outweigh the positives - if employers were smart, they'd work to make sure that doesn't happen.

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Re:Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Acr... by sethammons on Monday December 10, 2018 @05:54PM (#18651853)

seems to me that employers are working to make sure that doesn't happen. Pay is very, very good. Most of us make multiples of median household income in our respective areas. Plus have better working conditions.

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Re:Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Acr... by heavyset_go on Monday December 10, 2018 @06:20PM (#18651999)

Engineer pay hasn't kept up with productivity gains, inflation and increases in cost of living expenses.

The fact is that engineers create an increasing amount of value, and their compensation hasn't increased sufficiently to reflect that.

In fact, Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Pixar and eBay were found guilty of colluding to keep engineer pay artificially low through anti-poaching agreements[1].

[1] Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe will pay $415 million in anti-poach deal - http://fortune.com/2015/09/03/koh-anti-poach-order/

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Re:Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Acr... by mc32 on Monday December 10, 2018 @06:27PM (#18652062)

Do you think this really concerns Joe and Jill staff member at these companies, because I don’t think they cared about Joe and Jill but more about your senior people working on core products and services.

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Re:Google Employees Demand the End of Forced Arbitration Acr... by ionised on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @06:08AM (#18654538)

> seems to me that employers are working to make sure that doesn't happen. Pay is very, very good. Most of us make multiples of median household income in our respective areas. Plus have better working conditions.

Most software developers are not on HN, or making anywhere near Valley salaries.

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