Ask HN: I'm thinking about starting an activist group. Do I have a worthy cause? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I'm thinking about starting an activist group. Do I have a worthy cause?

1 pointsnowdragon2 comments

This NYtimes article summarizes the issue succinctly:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/starbucks-workers-scheduling-hours.html

I grew up upper-middle class. The book "Working Poor" really opened up my mind to what life is like for low income workers.

When I first heard about the $15/hour minimum wage movement, I initially rejected it. I studied Economics in college and I'm concerned what the effects would be to job growth. I'm still undecided.

What I think is a more pressing issue is "on call scheduling". Technology should improve the quality of living for humanity. Instead, software is wrecking havoc on the home lives of the lowest paid employees.

I'm thinking about starting an activist group. Do you think people would get behind it if I executed properly?

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No. My suggestion would be to find one of the groups already working in this field, get involved with them, and learn the ropes first, before starting your own group.

You have no activism experience. You likely have no organization experience in activism. It reads like your economics training focused on the needs of capital, and not of labor. What do you know of labor history in the US? What are the other groups working on this topc? Eg, I see the AFL-CIO is against on-call scheduling, and http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-on-call-scheduling-201... from 2016 says:

> A coalition of advocates launched a national campaign Tuesday to press large retailers, restaurant chains and other companies to end on-call and last-minute scheduling, which allows companies to assign shifts to workers with only a few hours' notice.

How aligned are you with their positions, what are your differences, and why should your group get funding instead of theirs?

That NYT article from 3 years ago says "Legislators and activists are now promoting proposals and laws to mitigate the scheduling problems", and concerns California. Have those laws gone into place? Do you think the right solution is to improve the laws? Or better enforcement of the laws already present?

Is on call scheduling your only focus? Or primary focus? How does it tie in with wage theft, calls to raise the minimum wage, and other labor issues?

Suppose someone says that on-call scheduling promotes job growth. What principles do you use to judge the balance between the desires of those who control capital and those who labor, and decide we should do something which might lead to less job growth but a better home life?

Seattle recently passed a law about scheduling designed to address some of these issues - http://www.seattle.gov/council/issues/secure-scheduling You could start by getting in touch with the groups that campaigned for it. I think your chances of starting an activist group are pretty poor if your exposure to this issue is entirely second hand and you would do better to find existing groups to support and help organize, even if they are not primarily focused on this issue.

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