Kickstarter’s vote to approve a union may throw the tech sector into a tailspin.
Employees at the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based platform, which helps people raise money for projects, voted 46 to 37 to unionize this week–a move that could prompt employees of other tech companies to unionize.
Historically, unions protected blue collar and government workers fighting for higher wages, better benefits, more flexible work hours, Nataliya Nedzhvetskaya, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, told The Hill. “This action seems to be motivated primarily by more moral issues,” added Nedzhvetskaya, who studies employees in the tech sector.
In other words, tech employees are no longer just looking out for their own paycheck.
To keep reading, click here: What Kickstarter Employees’ Union Win Means for Tech
Well, Nataliya Nedzhvetskaya — or the EHRL, it’s not exactly clear whom — may regard unions as, historically, “just looking out for their own paycheck,” as opposed to “more moral issues,” but that view distorts the entire history of the trade union movement. Trade unions, originally, dealt with a lot of life-of-death situations — including, but not limited to, workplace safety, child labor, etc. — and lives were actually lost in the struggle. So to mischaracterize unions’ history as — somehow — not dealing with moral issues appears to, unnecessarily, denigrate and trivialize their role. Now that we have a lot of workplace protections — many of which resulted from union initiatives — it’s easy to take unions for granted and to downplay they contributions. However, we in America are also in the process of backsliding with regard to various areas of social progress, so the need for unions may, again, become more apparent.
AGREED!
Can I co-sign?
Umm… I totally didn’t read it that way. For pete’s sake the student is from BERKELEY! Hardly a haven for mean ole’ capitalism and worker oppression.
But then again, you appear to have an axe to grind so I guess it’s to be expected.
Perhaps I do have an axe to grind; I detest attempts at revisionist history. Facts are facts, and opinions are opinions, and the two are — all too frequently — conflated.
Beautifully stated, grannybunny!
Several decades ago, the large insurance company for which I worked decided to change their ‘sick day’ policy for non-exempt workers. The first day you called out sick would be no-pay. If you had to call out one or more days after the first day, THEN you could use your sick days and get paid for them.
This would happen each time you called out sick.
They were shocked, shocked I tell you, when the staff tried to unionize.
But, in the meantime — it takes a while to unionize — I’m guessing that no one returned to work after taking just a single day of sick leave, but always took at least two! 🙂
However you may regard unions in general, it’s clear that this particular case is not about working conditions at all. It’s about excluding all political sides except SJWs from Kickstarter’s work force just as they’ve already excluded them from its customer base (prompting the creation of Freestartr among other competitors).
The inmates have taken over the asylum. It will not end well for them.
So in other words, “the market” (in the form of potential customers, and the labor needed to create the product) spoke and demanded changes in business practices at Kickstarter?
I would think your namesake would approve!