What? Damn, what's happening here?
Collective bargaining is a powerful tool. I recognize that and think it would be good for good people to have. But the danger is too high here.
Jeremy Corbyn has taught me that closing borders and leftist sympathies are not in opposition. And what will you do when that weapon is trained on my friends? Apologize in shock at how your ideals have been usurped? Apologize and say that it was a trade-off that must be made? Say that your priorities have shifted? No, that's not nearly enough. The weapon must simply not be built.
I'm not a political wheeler-dealer. I know where I fall short and I'll be easily bypassed in any attempt to put these safeguards in (even were they possible) by people with vastly more experience and skill at this than me.
Anyway, you don't need me, or any of the 2% who are immigrants, to succeed. But go try them, see what they think, if you care. Everyone's seen USTW's Muni ads. Everyone knows that fear lying underneath them. Not a one is convinced by TWC ending up ultimately different. Think what you want if it makes you feel better. When push comes to shove, I'm sure we'll know the truth.
https://twitter.com/techworkersco/status/974352480740847616
> Not a one is convinced by TWC ending up ultimately different.
Are they even aware of the existence of the TWC? Or that they're very, very different from the USTW? It's not exactly as if those who might support the latter aren't already vehemently against the latter:
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/progressives-immigrat...
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2010/10/08/anti-immigran...
> I'm not a political wheeler-dealer. I know where I fall short and I'll be easily bypassed in any attempt to put these safeguards in (even were they possible) by people with vastly more experience and skill at this than me.
The whole point of a union, or a democratic republic, or any sort of participatory organization is that you can join like-minded people to influence the future of the organization. That way, at risk minorities can have their voices heard and participate in a larger project that can protect their interests.
That said, all of this academic because the libertarian/atomized individualist current of the tech industry makes the prospect of a tech worker's union more or less near-impossible, so your hysteria is largely baseless. Even if your opinion about U.S. software engineers being largely xenophobic is correct- an assertion that is complicated by the fact that SV SWEs include many immigrants, and an organization like the TWC welcomes H-1B workers into its ranks- it would seem that the USTW's almost complete lack of presence, xenophobic MUNI ads aside, would seem to indicate that individualist instincts trump xenophobia.
These groups have no intentional aim to enforce or protect any but their most dominant pressure groups. If the day comes when they have to save the union by discarding their minority participants, they will do it; and if they could do it by saving their minority participants, they will do it; and if they could do it by discarding some and saving others, no doubt they would do that too.
TWC's present welcome is no indicator of any future resolve and it will take no large amount of work for those same H1-B workers to find themselves within a brazen bull that they've built.
> ...individualist instincts trump xenophobia
Indeed, and would that it be that it is forever so. Constantly crushing the chauvinist collectivist keeps him from dominating the weak. Diffuse power strengthens the weak. Concentrated power oppresses.
That is a pessimistic view of human society, but valid. That said, you can say the same of any arbitrary organization, from a startup to a major corporation to a healthcare system. A critique of labor unions is incomplete unless you can prove that they are inherently predisposed to the tyranny you suggest. Otherwise it is just a philosophical opinion as valid as any other, an interesting abstract notion about the nature of power, but not really useful in a discussion about policy.
> Diffuse power strengthens the weak. Concentrated power oppresses.
One should also take care to remember that the market itself is not a state of nature, but a place where many entities of concentrated power already dominate, and that power is far less diffuse than one may think- and in the cases such as US v. Adobe Systems Inc., et al., these corporations are not above collaborating to dominate the weak!
You are right, of course, large companies often cartelize to harm and employers inherently have more power in the relationship so it's already unbalanced. I have no objection to ad hoc organizations that form to fight singular causes, but a long-term group? It will, over time, dedicate more of its energies towards ensuring its existence and less to the cause it ostensibly espouses. And then, I expect to look in a window and see Mr. Pilkington and Napoleon arguing over their cards, and I doubt I will be able to tell which is which.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sfchronicle.com/crime/amp/S...