Remember they will invest billions to kill unions as they already had in the past. You will begin to hear a lot of negativity towards unions.
It saddens me people fall for those anti union videos. Theyre obvious bullshit. A lot of people arent bright at all.
Yeah, I used to have a manual labor job and I had heard there the company had fleets in other regions that were unionized. I was like “Cool, can we do that?”
The response was basically “No, because even though our hourly wage would be better, we would no longer be able to work so much overtime so our take-home pay would be smaller.”
Even at the time I thought that sounded like a better deal (I’d gladly reduce my hours for a higher rate?) But everyone else just took that as facts and thought the unionized fleets were a bunch of suckers…
I guess it doesn’t help that manual labor jobs tend to be filled with the less educated…
Yeah, the second half of the headline surprised me. I was expecting something along the lines of “The industry struck back hard, punishing them severely.”
The union in this case is University of California workers, so probably not as big a lift as organizing a union in Corporate America. Still, a nice acheivement for those involved
If AI makes IT and tech workers unionize, it actually created something useful.
Unionize Everything!
So how do I, a tech worker not at any of these institutions, support the general movement toward unionization? Due to me being outspoken in general, I can’t really vocally support unions in a way that companies might notice (cause they wouldn’t hesitate to fire me for some other reason). But I can send money or do other things. I just need to know whatever organization I am supporting is a real deal. Not just another power monger looking for a way to gain influence.
At a minimum, speak positively of unions to those around you and, if possible, educate those that don’t know. So many people think unions are a bad thing from the historical propaganda.
Unions are why we have 30 days vacation every year in Europe. Its the entire reason why we are not completely exploited like in the US.
Many people fought very hard to make that happen.
Oddly enough… I have noticed something. People in tech are sick a lot. Many tech places have unlimited sick and pto. People know the pto isn’t really unlimited. So they just are “sick” a lot. In the end, a lot of people take a lot more than 30 days. So that kind of argument won’t sway many of them. The layoffs though. And the way they are handled. That is what people really really don’t like. And the healthcare crap. Those are the things I mention if the subject of unions ever comes up.
I used to work in tech and I think it’s very draining these days, with AI and the constant pressure to deliver more and more. Could be why people are “sick”, they just can’t work on level all the time, even being young.
Yep, they know they need a break, and it’s kinda like being sick anyway. :) I just avoid working that hard in the first place. I almost never stay up late to work. Like once or twice a year if it’s some truely critical thing. Or just something I am really interested in. And if I work after 5, it’s nearly always because I am gaining some sense of completion or satisfaction from the specific work. Never just because some arbitrary deadline was set.
fun thing, your workplace doesn’t have to be unionized for you to be part of a union, it just helps if most of it is. i know a dental office that is represented by the teamsters.
join tech workers coalition or no tech for apartheid. There’s a lot of behind the scene work they do at a global level that doesn’t require any exposure
Union Now is worth supporting
Sneak a few fliers up around the office? Careful how you print them though, cause they’ll probably print with tiny yellow fingerprints hiding highly identifying information
Oh… I could put up tons of flyers with no issue. But noone will see them because I am a remote worker. :)
Wouldn’t you need to be law enforcement to even begin to follow that paper trail?
You think law enforcement wouldn’t run a few fliers as a favor to their buddies among our corporate overlords?
I’m not saying it’s a given, but it’s enough of a possibility that I’d still be careful.
Depends on the company probably. Manybe a Fortune 500 or a town in a deep red state where your boss literally knows the sheriff.
Yep. Lots of cops moonlight as corporate security.
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People don’t start fighting when times are good. Whenever we “buy time to organize”, we go out to brunch instead.
A movement only happens when it’s needed, not when it’s best for us.
Posted by someone who is bitter that ppl can wfh in tech and no one suffers (business actually flourished if looking at the numbers, gets less cars on the road and less stress) except useless middle managers who only know how to micro manage
You deserved your lay off. You don’t actually produce revenue, parasite.
im sorry i was never laid off, im in an industry that isnt part of the scheme of AI, so you are the sucker, and my comment is no way meant to denegrate these workers, but stating that the time was before the layoffs they shouldve unionize, no need to bee insulting, by the way you are only hurting yourself too.
i see i hit a nerve, you intolerant goon.
good.
Lay offs coming soon
I have mixed feelings on this. Tech workers are often the henchmen of borderline evil organisations. They’re looking for a place at the table, rather than to hold the companies accountable.
Of course, if it’s not as easy to lay them off maybe they can afford to risk holding them to account. I’m sceptical though.
There are tens of millions of tech jobs, the vast, vast majority of which is doing boring stuff like running the websites you visit.
…and then in their free time some create platforms like the one you’re on roght now, for free. So the generalization you made therr isn’t that appreciated.
Personally I try not to visit fascist websites
“Visiting websites is fascist” is the most peak terminally online take. Thanks for the laugh.
And they create the open source software in their free time that then gets abused by big tech.
I’m struggling to get the downvotes. Can someone explain how this is not the case in our world? MongoDB had to change their license because AWS would fuck them over. cURL and OpenSSL are used by all of them without much help, Bambu (OK, not really big tech) fucks the AGPL, Microsoft fucks everyone, all AI companies rob open source code…
well, from where else should come the power to interject with the company’s plans if not from forming unions? Like what does it mean to hold a company accountable if you have no leverage? Quitting and making a post on social media about it?
Absolutely, if you’re not at the table then you don’t have your say about the menu… because you’re a servant.
Sounds like you live in a black and white world. Sorry, the world is not as easy as you’d like.
Trying to claim that all people who work in tech are in on sinister plots for Big Tech is cartoon-level oversimplification.
It’s good to be suspicious, a healthy dose of critical thinking is well warranted.
But I would advice you consider that everyone and their mother was encouraged to “become the next Bill gates” if they’d showed any acumen in computers at all since about 1985. Also consider that working on a piece of software or infrastructure is often that piece; you don’t always get to see the big picture.
Overall I think this is a good thing; I guess it really matters how this union is controlled. Will it really be in the hands of the majority, etc
Most tech workers I know, myself included, are just trying to pay their bills and not be homeless. Yes sometimes salaries are higher than other fields. Though not as often as you might think. And many people are not trying to be “the next bill gates.” Which as you mention your supportive parents and grandma might have said in 1985. But no one is saying that anymore.
the people at the top are making all the decisions lol, sure there are some that are quite indifferent, but from the AI scheme, its all c-suites, and ceos.
Intersting pint. Not entirely wrong either. The main issue is you said “borderline”. Drop that and you would be more accurate. Henchmen are usually the people who get thrown to the wolves to protect the evil leader. That too is accurate. Do you think henchmen do that willingly? I can tell you they do not. You can look at google and microsoft and such, where tech workers have spoken out about d What their company is doing. They don’t like it. But there are very very few jobs in tech where the company isn’t evil. So the best course of action they can take is to try to get some control and steer the company away from evil. They won’t be able to make it not evil, they just can’t get that much power. But they can make it a bit less evil. And if the union gets big enough it can lobby politicians and such to get laws passed that can further contain the evil. So it’s kinda just something that can be done.
Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good.
At least they are fighting back. And now they have the collective power to stop working.
My question is: for who will they fight back? Meta employees have shown us they only fight for themselves as employees, not the victims of their work. And then there’s what Microsoft did to those who opposed involvement with genocide and colonialism. Many more examples too.
Having people hear about big tech companies unionizing can only help. Unions keep pressure on the companies, and keep them from going too far. Other companies hear about it, and offer up their own reforms voluntarily, hoping it will keep the workers from unionizing. Either way, unions work for EVERYBODY.
what does meta have to do with tbe university system?
