In Google one could work to make 2x to 3x more than the next person - is that will possible with a union?
Seems like in jobs where individual talent / skills matter, a union is by definition harmful (unless you’re in the lower 50%).
Collective action / protest works fine, though, for establishing baselines. If giving employees what they want is cheaper than firing all of them and hiring a fresh batch, it should always work fine.
Professional athlete unions would be a counterexample, I believe. It really depends on how the union is structured. I doubt a union for high paid tech workers would be structured the same way as one for blue collar labourers.
Personally I find us far more alike other industries than unlike.
We're a new industry but we're still full of people of all types sizes and emotional colours.
A lot of people only associate unions with factory workers kind of jobs, it’s not. Think of journalists or performing actors unions for instance.
I wouldn't be surprised to see similar clauses in other union constitutions for fields in which, like tech, there's a large and obvious talent dispersion. I think a majority-rule approach would inevitably lead to the anti-meritocratic policies you're imagining.
[1] https://www.sagaftra.org/files/2015_1002_sag-aftra_constitut...
It's the same idea. Workers doing things collectively.
There's no shortage of companies with various abusive practices that remain in business. Arbitration agreements, micro-management, strict controls over things as simple as bathroom breaks, even riding the line on wage-theft. I'm very glad to see this particular change, but to say "Google's programmers demanded change and got it, why don't you get with it, un-unionized cashiers at S-Mart!" overestimates the influence of those workers.
(of course one instance is too small of a sample size to support either direction on its own)
Both of these directly impact the bottom line and in competitive markets can and has killed companies.
The goods news is Amazon’s pay raise has made Walmart and Target increase their minimum wages as well.
I'm all for balancing the employer<->employee interaction, but is this truly something that works for most industries? Google cares about it's reputation among potential tech employees. Other areas (say, Amazon warehouses) probably have a lot less trouble finding people desperate for work and willing to put up with crap because they need the jobs.
As good as this news is, is this really a template that we can expect much to build from? (as opposed to organized unions with legally protected ability to strike, for example)