A Fired Kickstarter Organizer Is Trying To Unionize Tech Workers Using Kickstarter (vice.com) 62
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: In early September, the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter fired two union organizers in 8 days. One of them was Clarissa Redwine, who considered her termination to be a blatant act of retaliation for organizing what could become the first union at a major tech company in the United States. Although Redwine lost her job, she has not given up her vision. Today, she launched "Solidarity Onboarding," a new project designed to help workers unionize the tech industry -- using her former employer's platform. A collaboration between current and former organizers at WeWork, Google, Facebook, and other tech companies and coalitions, the project consists of an onboarding kit (booklet, pin, pencil, sticker) for tech workers interested in unionizing. "This kit is passed between coworkers as an act of solidarity and a signal that there is room to organize at your company," the project states.
"Imagine the mirror image of a company's onboarding kit but for the tech labor movement," Redwine told Motherboard. "The focal point of this onboarding kit is a booklet of anti-worker statements. It's a collection of common talking point companies use to dissuade employees from taking collective action. Think of it as a union-busting artifact passed across companies from worker to worker." Within four hours of the project's launch, Redwine raised over 3 times her goal of $1000. The kit's booklet includes a collection of real anti-union quotes from tech CEOs -- including one from an email Kickstarter CEO Aziz Hasan sent to his employees in September, in response to the firings of Redwine and another union organizer: "The union framework is inherently adversarial. That dynamic doesn't reflect who we are as a company, how we interact, how we make decisions, or where we need to go." Another page includes a statement from an Amazon anti-union training video: "Our business model is built upon speed, innovation, and customer obsession -- things that are generally not associated with a union. When we lose sight of those critical focus areas we jeopardize everyone's job security: yours, mine, and the associates." "Clarissa's creative project is, of course, welcome on our platform," a spokesperson for Kickstarter said. "Kickstarter is a place where creators can share their ideas with the world and find people who want to support those ideas. We also welcome the continued dialogue among our staff members about the idea of a union at Kickstarter. We unequivocally support our staff's right to decide the unionization question for themselves."
"Imagine the mirror image of a company's onboarding kit but for the tech labor movement," Redwine told Motherboard. "The focal point of this onboarding kit is a booklet of anti-worker statements. It's a collection of common talking point companies use to dissuade employees from taking collective action. Think of it as a union-busting artifact passed across companies from worker to worker." Within four hours of the project's launch, Redwine raised over 3 times her goal of $1000. The kit's booklet includes a collection of real anti-union quotes from tech CEOs -- including one from an email Kickstarter CEO Aziz Hasan sent to his employees in September, in response to the firings of Redwine and another union organizer: "The union framework is inherently adversarial. That dynamic doesn't reflect who we are as a company, how we interact, how we make decisions, or where we need to go." Another page includes a statement from an Amazon anti-union training video: "Our business model is built upon speed, innovation, and customer obsession -- things that are generally not associated with a union. When we lose sight of those critical focus areas we jeopardize everyone's job security: yours, mine, and the associates." "Clarissa's creative project is, of course, welcome on our platform," a spokesperson for Kickstarter said. "Kickstarter is a place where creators can share their ideas with the world and find people who want to support those ideas. We also welcome the continued dialogue among our staff members about the idea of a union at Kickstarter. We unequivocally support our staff's right to decide the unionization question for themselves."
Bandaid on cancer. Good idea gone WRONG. (Score:1)
Congratulations on getting me to peek at the dead branch?
Meta-comment: FPs should be useful, even thoughtful, and nudge discussion in interesting directions, but ACs love tripe.
The fundamental and underlying problem with Kickstarter is that it is exploiting people's desire to make the world better. Nice people are like that, but Kickstarter has figured out how to make them suckers for trying to be nice. Naivete pays?
Unionization or the lack of unionization is no part of the problem or solution.
Pointless sol
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False premise. Wanting more than you actually need is the crux of all the angst. I did fine with one job (in series) all my life. No "have to" forcing me to get a second.
Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
Are tech workers generally oppressed and taken advantage of? (outside the games industry, of course.)
I'm surely part of the problem myself, but I'm wondering what my union dues would get me. Health insurance that pays a dividend? Even more stock? $4 lunches?
Thing's aren't always going to be perfect but something as generic as 'tech worker' has boundless opportunity in this country, and in other parts of the world, wondering what the aim of this unionizing effort is.
I've been around long enough to have seen many of these efforts get talked about and fizzle, I think it's on a 5-6 year cycle. In the end, most tech workers hate their jobs for other reasons than what a union could change.
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I think that most unions these days aren’t particularly helpful or beneficial to anyone (especially in the tech sector) but the union itself, but it’s not my call to make. I’ll gladly support them forming one if they believe it’s in their own bes
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Some companies have engaged in criminal behavior against union organizers, including murder. Conversely, some unions have engaged in extortion and murder to gather power and protect their turf. When they work well, unions form a _balance_ against the worst abuses of industry. And businesses counter abusive unions by succeeding, as businesses, when unions tax the finances and political power of their members against their own interests.
If I may point out, each has been outrageous at various times and places.
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That best reason for a law like that would be to prevent anyone organising a union. As soon as they try, they're fired.
I don't think unions are going to make a comeback in the US and your working conditions are not going to get any better, even if you're one of those "valuable" workers.
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> I am fairly sure that almost every state in the US has a law on the books that says that an employer can fire anyone at any time, for any reason, or none at all if they choose to.
Union organizing is specifically protected by federal law sin the USA, specifically Section 8 of the National Labor Relations Act. Failing to complete work is not protected, and employers will often target union organizers for negative job reviews and seek out excuses to fire them. But union organizing, like being black or fem
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
I am fairly sure that almost every state in the US has a law on the books that says that an employer can fire anyone at any time, for any reason, or none at all if they choose to.
You understand incorrectly. There are many reasons for firing people that are illegal. Union organizing is specifically protected.
Kickstarter is claiming that Clarissa's union activities were NOT the reason she was fired, but that she was not doing her job well. If they have clear evidence, such as signed poor performance reviews from months or years ago, then Kickstarter should be fine. If there is no document trail, or if it conflicts with their story, then they may have problems.
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Why would you put your name down when you join a union? Let the company figure out how to fire anon87543.
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Cite please. And kindly make it timely.
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The entire Wikipedia page on "anti-union violence" is pretty good. It's hardly complete, and the rate of murder in the USA has fallen. The last convicted muder in the USA lited there was the Greensborough Massacre of 5 workers in 979. More recently, I'll cite the murder of Santiago Cruz in Mexico, https://www.mcclatchydc.com/ne... [mcclatchydc.com]
Do you feel the need for citations of the reverse, of criminal behavior by unions? Both unions and corporations against unions have engaged in abusive criminal behavior at times.
Most are putting in 60+/hr work weeks (Score:5, Insightful)
I know plenty of the rank and file. They do swing shifts. Graveyards. 12 1/2 hour days. All to keep the hours down for 24/7 teams. They do overtime, often unpaid. The cost of their healthcare is skyrocketing (one I know it's going up $150/mo this year, which is basically a $150/mo paycut).
And there's zero job security. You're constantly under threat of being outsourced. Constantly having to update your skills on your free time (or worse, spend your own money on training). And because there's no job security you're spending your days off getting ready for job interviews when the economy collapses and layoffs come. After that some are just unemployed for years, others work 80+/hrs/week to make up for the folks who got fired.
Lots can't keep it up, they have strokes. Heart attacks. I know 3 or 4 guys who died post 2008 (3 or 4 because I'm not 100% sure the 4th one worked himself to death, the other 3 I'm certain of, people talked).
This isn't about things being perfect. This is about us becoming disposable commodities. Didn't you notice it happening? Companies increasingly compartmentalized you. They used dev ops to break up what you did into easily manageable chunks. And easily replaceable chunks.
Employers learn dammit. They long since noticed us IT nerd became indispensable. They got tired of paying $120k/yr+ salaries with nice benefits. They've been replacing when they can and breaking us up when they can't.
No, we didn't need unions in the 90s when the
Re: Most are putting in 60+/hr work weeks (Score:2, Insightful)
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Plus stock, RSUs, a great health plan, free food, tons of vacation, and so on.
Ok, but kind of free snacks do you provide? And do you have free yoga classes?
But in all seriousness, maybe don't throw out those resumes you think is not worth looking at. Talented people I worked with included both people with and without CS resumes, and with and without prior work experience.
Also, since you're in Silicon Valley, you're not only competing against big names like Apple, Google, Facebook and Netflix, but also paying for the ridiculous rent employees have to pay. There's no getting around tha
Doesn't take much (Score:2)
If you have an advanced STEM degree then you're probably OK. You'll take a $20-$30k/yr pay cut but do alright.
God help you if you don't have a college degree. Even without a resume gap you're boned.
But lately I've been seeing kids (I'm an old guy) with CS degrees in these kind of crap positions. Real ones from real Universities (albeit State Us).
N
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Nope. I'm proof you're wrong.
Re:Doesn't take much (Score:4, Insightful)
I've no idea what alternate world you're working in.
Your degree gets you your first job. And maybe it helps with your second and third job. After that, no one cares. I've long-since taken my own degree off my short-form resume. And when I'm looking at candidates, I only bother checking the education section for interns and entry-level positions. Mid-level and higher? That section is just filler. And that's pretty much the norm amongst most people I know when we have occasion to compare notes on our hiring experiences.
And there are plenty of people... very successful people... working in SV whose degree is not tech-related, or who dropped out before graduating, or who never bothered with college at all. It *IS* a little bit more difficult to get *started* that way. But, again, after your third job or so, no one cares.
Re: Most are putting in 60+/hr work weeks (Score:5, Insightful)
See, here's the problem: you think all tech workers are "in the valley". There actually are some tech workers in the world who are more than a 2 hour drive from Palo Alto.
Also, for the starting salary of $140,000 (in the valley) is just about enough to share a mobile home in Oakland with roommates.
Collective bargaining is a right. As long as there's going to be aggregation of capital, you need aggregation of labor. Take away one and the system becomes unstable.
Re: Most are putting in 60+/hr work weeks (Score:1)
Re: Most are putting in 60+/hr work weeks (Score:1)
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Hell, the answer for me was getting fired, then getting government contracts. I actually have to fill 12 positions by the end of the month because they can't work overseas. I was fired so they could hire 3 overseas workers to replace me. I currently customize their software and write about 30 critical defects a week, 40-50 serious and 1-2 emergency. It is fun revenge, but very time consuming. Software went to total shit when outsourced.
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''No, we didn't need unions in the 90s when the .com boom was in full swing. Yes, we do need them now''
Close, there does need to be a change made to hold major producers of work, responsible for the producers of the work. I don't believe that unions are the answer [or will ever be].
From 2008 forward these producers of work subcontracted the skilled work to companies who hired independent contractors. This went unnoticed until our recovery a few years ago when a number of AGs threatened to investigate. At th
Unions were the answer in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s (Score:2)
And there's still a boatload of subcontractor fraud. And don't forget H1-B spam.
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The cost of their healthcare is skyrocketing (one I know it's going up $150/mo this year, which is basically a $150/mo paycut).
But, but, that's impossible ... Obamacare made it so much more affordable, right? Only us troglodytes said otherwise.
And there's zero job security. You're constantly under threat of being outsourced.
It's hard to have too much sympathy. You voted for the party of open borders for decades, and anybody who so much as raised a peep you shouted down and mocked as being racist nazis.
How you thought you were going to compete with the third world (for "rank and file" jobs, as you put it) I have no idea, but now you don't like it. How about that.
You never thought that it was your job that was
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I know plenty of the rank and file. They do swing shifts. Graveyards. 12 1/2 hour days. All to keep the hours down for 24/7 teams. They do overtime, often unpaid. The cost of their healthcare is skyrocketing (one I know it's going up $150/mo this year, which is basically a $150/mo paycut)
I am the rank and file. I work 9+ days. I do 1 in 3 week oncall rotation. I am also spend a good deal of my time "managing the offshore" because they are low paid scut workers who don't know a quarter of what I know.
But, what I don't need is some overblown extortion racket telling me I can't work unless I pay them money. Fuck them and fuck you.
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And as your anecdotes are like this:
Pardon if I don't believe you.
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The fact companies have to outsource to save money is indication that tech employees are not oppressed and can demand high wages.
This site is the only place I hear these stories of woe for tech people. But nobody I know can hire even an H1B at the wages described, let alone with a sucky environment, hell, H1Bs are even laterally moving between companies these days.
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Are tech workers generally oppressed and taken advantage of?
Are doctors, lawyers, accountants and PEs generally oppressed and taken advantage off? After all, those professions all have mandatory unions.
I get it.... But (Score:3)
I haven't had all that much trouble (Score:2)
The worst I've seen are the old conservatives.
I know, saying that goes over like a lead balloon around here, but I swear there's an inverse relationship between how much somebody bitches about other people being lazy and how much work they
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I'm confused... I work in automation, so if I work very hard to be lazy...
Send part of my paycheck to politicians? (Score:3)
Re: It's going to be interesting times (Score:1, Troll)
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I would've loved to make just 20% less than the average parent when I came out of school. Massive school debt is a you problem, nobody demanded you go for a degree in interpretive dance theory just to work at Starbucks, on the other hand all engineering companies are hiring students right out of school at some disgustingly high salaries.
People that need degrees (engineers, doctors etc) are in short supply for some reason. They're all paying off their school debts in a matter of years.
Boomers have always kno
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Um, Baby boomers are much older than you think. Most have already retired. Do you know what you are talking about? Also, the median house price in the US isn't $290k. You don't know what you are talking about.
Unions are to balance power (Score:4, Interesting)
I need a union if the company has some sort of extra power over me If they are the only mine in town and I can't move out, if I trained for years for a job with only one major employer (teachers, professional athletes), if there are safety issues (construction, chemicals, heavy machinery),or if there are moral issues (CIA analysts, police officers).
I think a lot of unions don't know their purpose. They are about power for the union organizers (try getting elected to be a union rep), they fight for the most useless members, they often create inflexibility in the work place and personally I've never seen them fight for safety or moral issues.
Disclosure: I hate the union I belonged to. I was a unionized hospital laundry worker. The laundry was filthy and very unsafe. We never passed a health inspection in the 3 years I was there. We had a fire and they left 6 of us in the building and didn't notice we were missing.
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I think a lot of unions don't know their purpose.
This is a problem.
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''I think a lot of unions don't know their purpose.''
Let me clarify it for you. The purpose of a union is to collect dues by selling a dream and requiring everyone to pay for the possibility of making the dream reality. Once installed their job is to prove their value by disruption and keeping an unfair share [just like any good salesman] and misappropriating employee retirement packages, anything to make a profit from the people they sold representation to.
Re:Unions are to balance power (Score:4, Interesting)
''I think a lot of unions don't know their purpose.''
Let me clarify it for you. The purpose of a union is to collect dues by selling a dream and requiring everyone to pay for the possibility of making the dream reality. Once installed their job is to prove their value by disruption and keeping an unfair share [just like any good salesman] and misappropriating employee retirement packages, anything to make a profit from the people they sold representation to.
Unions are job insurance. Just like any form of insurance, it wants to get the most money from the insured for the least service possible, using the law to protect itself when it can. It will always act in it's own best interest.
Snark backfire. (Score:2)
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How dare they! (Score:2)
Another page includes a statement from an Amazon anti-union training video: "Our business model is built upon speed, innovation, and customer obsession -- things that are generally not associated with a union.
How dare they ... er, say something true!
Sounds marvelous. (Score:1)
They should know better than anyone (Score:2)