How tech workers at Kickstarter formed one of the only unions in the industry

Re:How tech workers at Kickstarter formed one of the only un... by indigochill on Thursday October 08, 2020 @05:04AM (#24717293)

I'm in a mandatory union in my country. But I'm a software engineer and it's an "office worker" union, so needless to say they take on a lot of stuff that's totally irrelevant to me. But because I'm required to be in the union, I get "represented" anyway and "get" to go on strike and take a substantial pay cut to "support my peers", none of whom I'll work with or have similar life situations to mine.

To be clear, though, I have no issue if some people think they can improve their bargaining position by being in a union. That should be what a union is, after all. Where I do object to unions is when they come to dominate their field and turn actively hostile to outsiders who don't play their game or, as in my case, arrange things so that people who don't care to be represented by them have to be regardless in order to work in their area.

I am jaded by large/exploitative corporations, but my way of dealing with that is to not work for large/exploitative corporations.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How tech workers at Kickstarter formed one of the only un... by refurb on Thursday October 08, 2020 @05:17AM (#24717355)

This is an insightful comment.

I would argue that most people don't have an aversion to the idea of unions, but more to their practical application (at least in the US). Just like any large organization, things can go off the rails and move far away from the original intended purpose.

But at the same time, you only really hear about the bad unions. The ones that fairly represent their members and partner with management to find common ground (obviously this is dependent on good management as well)? Those don't get talked about much.

[ Parent | on HN ]