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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

> I'm guessing that this was intended to reduce the headcount without paying severance

The employees were planning to unionize, and the RTO plan "conveniently" came up right at that time. These are pretty classic union-busting techniques.

I'm actually pretty nervous for users from a security perspective. The Grindr data is essentially a blackmail gold mine - combine a ton of disgruntled employees with the loss of expertise to maintain app security (which had a number of issues in the past), and I don't think it bodes well.

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> These are pretty classic union-busting techniques.

The NLRB has been notified, mentioned in the article.

The real question is will they do anything.

It's likely.

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-08-28-bidens-nlrb-brings-wor...

https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/board-issues-d...

https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/national-labor...

Sure, plenty of rules exist. The real test is in how those get enforced.

NLRB just changed a key rule so a lot of union-busting by the employer now essentially automatically forces recognition of the union.

https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/board-revises-...

Again, that's a nice rule. But how is that enforced? It still has to be proven that RTO is intended to union bust. That's the tough part.

To my understanding if 50% (a majority) of the employees signs up (ie, union cards) for the union prior to any vote, if the employer takes a union-busting act, the union is automatically legitimized and the employer must negotiate with them.

Most major corporations are all already doing union-deterrence (not illegal) as operating practice so they likely won't see an impact unless there is a black swan event that causes workforce and management to come to loggerheads.

Your understanding is correct.

https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/us-circuit-cou... ("U.S. Circuit Court Directs U.S. Marshals to Take Haven Salon + Spa Corporate Officials into Custody for Refusing to Comply with Board’s and Court’s Orders")

That looks like a lot of marketing to me trying to shore up Biden's reputation with Union workers after he killed the railroad strike and left our necessary workers to the dogs.

From the _IBEW_ ( https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/2306... ):

> “We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.

That's amazing – it's strange that I never noticed that. Although I can imagine that it would benefit a lot of dealmakers to lower the public attention on this issue a little.

No it doesn’t benefit any deal maker to do this.

The media simply doesn’t cover this for obvious reasons.

The media is corporate and pro union actions aren’t good for them either.

You’re getting downvoted because that wasn’t Biden, it was Congress. Biden is probably the most union-friendly president over the past 50 years.

which I wouldn't have expected, honestly

Whether someone truly cares about an issue or whether they are pretending to care, if the outcome is the same then does it actually matter?

> I'm actually pretty nervous for users from a security perspective. The Grindr data is essentially a blackmail gold mine - combine a ton of disgruntled employees with the loss of expertise to maintain app security (which had a number of issues in the past), and I don't think it bodes well.

This shouldn't change anything from an opsec perspective. Google itself will always have record of you having downloaded it to your device. The Chinese were looking to buy Grindr for some reason. Someone could leak, sure, but nothing stops the company itself from selling out to anyone interested in membership records at any time.

> The Grindr data is essentially a blackmail gold mine.

More than that. It's leaked before.[1] Grindr data was used to catch a senior US Catholic official:

"... an analysis of app data signals correlated to Burrill’s mobile device shows the priest also visited gay bars and private residences while using a location-based hookup app in numerous cities from 2018 to 2020, even while traveling on assignment for the U.S. bishops’ conference."

“On Monday, we became aware of impending media reports alleging possible improper behavior by Msgr. Burrill. What was shared with us did not include allegations of misconduct with minors. However, in order to avoid becoming a distraction to the operations and ongoing work of the Conference, Monsignor has resigned effective immediately,”[2]

[1] https://www.engadget.com/grindr-location-data-sold-for-years...

[2] https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/pillar-investigates-usccb-g...

Amazing how quickly they solve the "problem" when it involves completely legal consensual adult activity, compared to when it's a YOUNG boy

Yeah. Rape a kid? Silence and you get moved to a different location where you can continue raping kids and be moved to a further new location.

But had consensual sex with a man? Unforgivable. You must resign.

GPS for "meeting young boys" just points to church, unfortunately. One's much easier to track with tech.

I'm pretty sure the Church was just doing damage control for a vow breaker.

If you think that "membership records" are the most damning thing that can be used for blackmail from Grindr, I can only surmise you've never used Grindr.

I have not, but I've been around.

Beyond pictures, chats, HIV status and GPS data, I cannot imagine what you're alluding to.

I'm not sure if unionization plans came before or after the RTO plans. If it was before, I'd actually consider it a new union-busting technique.

It was before. They didn't acknowledge it and put the RTO in effect. (Second-hand account.)

Unionization efforts started at least 2 weeks before the RTO plans.

> These are pretty classic union-busting techniques.

It may be a union-busting technique, but I'm not sure about "classic".

I mean how often has the economy had to recover from a multi-year work at home mandate due to a pandemic?

The massive switch to remote work and the pendulum swinging back towards more in-office work is a unique phenomena, not a recurring "classic" situation.

They forgot to mention that all of their customers just left also. One of those employees has all the data. Guaranteed.

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