It's great that people are standing up against the abusive power of big companies.
When will Apple (App Store) developers unionize?
When will Apple (App Store) developers unionize?
Besides, if I do something so bad my boss wants to fire me, fine then I'll go work somewhere where people want me. I don't want to have to bring in my union rep to argue about it since going somewhere else means losing my tenure and taking a 30% pay cut.
The only time unions make sense is when you're doing labor that could be done by anyone and your bus factor is basically infinite. It doesn't make sense for skilled labor
* don’t want to have to switch jobs to address grievances
* can’t switch jobs because everywhere is shitty (eg actors guild).
* an industry has a monopoly on some local resource like forest for lumber or coal mines and so you can’t just start or join a competitor.
It’s not really about skilled labor, it’s about mobility and the market forces that prevent it.
In practice, creating unions is heavily frowned upon and discouraged through various underhanded means.
That should tell you that companies view unions as enemies, and collective bargaining in general.
And companies for sure don't have your interests in mind. Also for sure you don't have the negotiating power they have.
And, to be clear, I'm not actually saying this is necessarily a bad thing. I personally believe that social services should be at the grace of the government and not your employer - but this system relies on people on both sides of the fence (employee and employer) realizing that their employment is a contract that is to the benefit of the company and if their contract ceases to be beneficial it will be terminated. Being unaware of this fact will lead you to grief - it's on you to make sure you're getting a fair share for your value (which might, just FYI, include diverting a lot of your value creation to warehouse workers and the like who you think deserve a higher standard of living)
The Company Formerly Known As Google, that literally had to settle (i.e. paid money to not lose the trial) for collusion to depress employee wages?
That company? Yeah, employee interests at heart <3
> Meta
For employees I hear The Company Formerly Knows as Facebook is actually quite good. But they're not a charity.
> were catered to with many great benefits (including catering)
Those benefits are cheap when bought in bulk, like corporations do. They also encouraged employees to stay more at work. Yes, they're nice, but let's not pretend that those benefits were not chosen very strategically.
Both Google and Facebook are making a ton of money and still growing like gangbusters (Facebook somewhat less so). Once their growth plateaus, if they need to fire 10k employees each to increase profits and share values, they will do so without remorse. Probably on a Zoom call with all 10k employees at once.
I know what the benefits are for, and while there are some good side-effects for the company, a lot of them are genuinely good for the employees as well. I had enough massage credits, Covid cue tests, and time spent in great gyms to attest to that. If they can be bought in bulk, all the more reason I appreciate it being someone’s job at the company to manage that.
I’m not saying these companies are your best pal and will look out for you against their own interests, but I personally don’t feel like I need or want a union between me and my employer. I don’t fault anyone for wanting one, but the hyperbole and passing opinions as facts on the other side, especially without considering the downsides of unions, isn’t doing anything to convince me.
What kind of broken logic is this?
Getting caught is precisely proof that the LEGAL system works, and that companies try to and succeed in abusing it.
Those companies agreed to those illegal practices in 2006, if not earlier, and they had to pay those settlements in 2015, 9 full years later.
They probably made out like bandits during those 9 years and saved a ton more money than they had to pay.
And regarding your negotiating skills, most of us think we're better than we actually are.
Plus, this is a social thing. Let's assume you're part of the 1%. What do we do about the 99%? Do we just piss on their heads from a great height, "f** you, got mine"-style, pardon my French?
Unions should be a valid option.
Why does the former preclude the latter?
> Besides, if I do something so bad my boss wants to fire me, fine then I'll go work somewhere where people want me.
What if you didn't do _anything_ and your boss wants to fire you so badly? What if your boss fired you over Zoom randomly without any recourse?
> The only time unions make sense is when you're doing labor that could be done by anyone and your bus factor is basically infinite.
I disagree with this point. A union makes sense for anyone that is working for a wage. It makes sense to me to work together for all of our benefit rather than me to try to go up against those that pay my wage alone.
Put it another way, I do not think that I can argue well enough to get the actual value that I produce back in my pocket and would love if we all banded together and said "We deserve this much of the value we produce" instead.
They can do that even with a union. The difference with a union is that they can collectively stop working if the employer violated a clause like "union members must be fired with reasoning pre-approved by the union", and then the employer either needs to find new employees for every person that was in the union or needs to re-negotiate terms with the union, likely including reparations ie. re-hiring the coworker.
A union makes sense for anyone that is working for a wage but that doesn't mean people have to want to be in one. Adding a union adds a bunch of extra politics and brainpower to the advent of getting your job done, and that's not for everyone.
But that potential response by the union should be enough of an incentive that casually firing somebody over Zoom for no reason is removed from the employer's SOP.
The same as what GP said "If my company starts dicking me around I'll quit and find another job". If I'm no longer wanted at my job, I'll find another one.
Unions provide a ton of value if you're a skilled worker who does something comparable to gig work, jumping from jobsite to jobsite where the Union helps them keep their health insurance. It also helps when your job also has other political implications.
The context tech workers should unionize would be in an instance where they job hopped even more often than is currently the case, and also potentially on teams where you become just so specialized that switching companies becomes difficult.
I agree with this sentence - because of the current state of the job market, and the level of seniority I have attained. However, if you are entry or junior, or if the market changes (good times don't last forever), just working a 'skilled labor' job won't give you the job security we enjoy atm. In that case, looking for a new job would be much more daunting, and working on improving your current work conditions might be a much better option.
(edit - improve accuracy of which part of the statement I agree with)
A union does not prevent you from leaving your job for another employer. Why would you think that?
I would consider professional athletes skilled and they have powerful unions.
Hollywood writers, actors, and directors are skilled an they all have unions/guilds.
And I think it makes more sense to join a union preemptively, while things are in our favor, than to join a union in the future, possibly from a position of weakness.
The problem is, of course, every developer thinks they're a 10x rockstar who doesn't need a union.
Apple is a 10x rockstar company ...
Maybe 100x.
The days of the lone 10x programmer with a strategy that leads to guaranteed success are over.
An alliance of employers against a third party is a cartel, which is substantially different legal proposition. (Said without intending the pejorative connotations of the word 'cartel')
Do you mean developers that Apple employs full-time, or third-party developers that publish on Apple's App Store?