Hacker News Reader

Comment by drb91 | Hacker News Reader

Silicon Valley needs to get into labor agitation if these protests are gonna go anywhere.

Wouldn't software engineers need to unionize to do that effectively? I'm asking from knowledge 0 about unions etc. So how would that work?

Yes, they would need to organize, but what’s happening at Google is a nascent form of this kind of struggle. Before there were ever such things as unions, workers banned together and rebelled in precisely the way employees at Google are doing so now. Over time, they recognized the need to create a formal, more durable structure, which culminated in what we today think of as unions.

In terms of the practical realities of organizing developers, check out Tech Solidarity or your local DSA branch. Both groups are deeply involved with helping workers organize and restore a sane power balance to the American economy.

https://techsolidarity.org/

https://www.dsausa.org/

Yes, unionization is key here. Cultural tastes need to change a bit, I think, but developers have enormous leverage.

I’d like to echo the sibling comment to visit your local DSA branch if you want more information.

Organization - maybe, unionization is not. It might even shift this kind of power away from the developers with all the unethical stuff easily traded for perks and better compensation.

Depends on your goals, I guess. It seems to me we’re already trading both compensation and ethical say for perks.

Organized protest doesn't necessarily mean unionization.

Look at the school walkouts in the United States lately.

Helicopter video on the news of 1,000 Googlers marching out of their offices would do a lot more to raise the nation's awareness of the issue, and put a lot more pressure on the C-level, than an internally-circulated letter.

I agree with the sentiment here, but PR driven pressure is probably not the best leverage to use in all cases. There’s real value to having internal say in the direction of the company you’re building.

That’s an important point that not many people realize about unions.

Unions are great, when they are great.

The West Virginia teacher strikes were wildcat strikes, meaning they did not have the support of their union. The union was against the strikes but the teachers had the support of their community, which is far more important.

In short, and due to the recent Janus Act, unions in the US are not going to be very helpful for a while. But, more important is building a popular consciousness ready to articulate these struggles within a capitalist system.

DSA has a few very positive tech-focused organizing efforts underway in SF and NYC. I recommend starting at http://dsausa.org

Software engineers have already begun unionizing.

Would love to know more about this if you have the info handy.

Step one would be for them to lean what a Union actually is. It means something completely different in the US than the rest of the world.

Yes, and a union is emphatically not a positive or negative thing in itself. Arguably the police union is at the heart of the BLM movement.

I'm curious what people think about protest commits. Would it be unethical for a group of employees to get together and push an update to put up a protest banner across some google software? Much like a picket line across a factory entrance?

I'm down if you're down.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com