Re:Gig workers are organising in tech-savvy ways
by AnthonyMouse on Thursday May 07, 2020 @07:50PM
(#23109758)
> I agree that it was simply easier to coordinate as a function of low number of agents in the game. But I doubt the convenience of it was the motivating factor.
Well of course the motivation was to suppress wages so they could make more money. All companies have that incentive. Which is why that's illegal independent of unions -- it's an antitrust violation.
> I take your point regarding culture and other contextual variables, but there is hardly an macroeconomic reality that makes unions unworkable as you generalized.
Let's put it a different way though: Do union software engineers in Finland get paid more or less than non-union software engineers in San Francisco?
Because it's possible for a union to make its workers globally competitive by accepting lower wages to offset the cost of dealing with the union, but that's obviously not what we're after, right?
Well of course the motivation was to suppress wages so they could make more money. All companies have that incentive. Which is why that's illegal independent of unions -- it's an antitrust violation.
> I take your point regarding culture and other contextual variables, but there is hardly an macroeconomic reality that makes unions unworkable as you generalized.
Let's put it a different way though: Do union software engineers in Finland get paid more or less than non-union software engineers in San Francisco?
Because it's possible for a union to make its workers globally competitive by accepting lower wages to offset the cost of dealing with the union, but that's obviously not what we're after, right?