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Kickstarter Workers Make History with Unionization Vote

posted by martyb on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:00AM   
from the stick-together-or-fail-apart? dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow4275:

Kickstarter workers make history with unionization vote:

Workers at Kickstarter voted Tuesday to form a union. It's the first time the white-collar workers at a high-profile technology company have formally chosen to be represented by a union. With growing unrest among workers at larger technology giants—including Google and Amazon—it could be the start of a trend.

[...]Relations between management and the union organizers [have] deteriorated over the [past] year. Last summer, Kickstarter fired two employees involved in union organizing. The employees say this was illegal retaliation for their organizing efforts; the company insists that the firings were performance-related and had nothing to do with the organizing effort.

In any event, Kickstarter's efforts to discourage its employees from forming a union were unsuccessful. On Tuesday, employees voted by a 47 to 36 margin to form the union.

Previously:
Kickstarter Faces Union Backlash After Firing Two Organizers

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Original Submission

• Always Kickstart a Nazi in the face Always Kickstart a Nazi in the face (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:46AM (3 children)

  by c0lo (156) on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:46AM (#960999) Journal

  But Kickstarter became embroiled in controversy in August 2018 when it hosted a crowdfunding campaign for a comic book called "Always Punch Nazis." Conservatives cried foul, saying that Kickstarter's terms of service prohibit projects that encourage violence against others—and that some liberals have labeled mainstream conservative figures, including President Donald Trump, as Nazis.

  The issue was controversial within Kickstarter. Management eventually decided to remove the campaign, then reversed themselves again after an uproar from rank-and-file Kickstarter employees. The issue created lingering bad blood between labor and management and caused some Kickstarter employees to take a serious look at organizing a union.

  Stay vigilant, S/N. You never know when the editorial team decide to unionize on account of censoring aristarchus [soylentnews.org].

  Oh, wait! ... Except they organized as a mob not an union.

  (large grin)

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

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• Re:Always Kickstart a Nazi in the face Re:Always Kickstart a Nazi in the face (Score: 2) by Booga1 on Saturday February 22 2020, @01:06PM (1 child)

  by Booga1 (6333) on Saturday February 22 2020, @01:06PM (#961011)

  Unions can look a lot like the mob in extremely large organizations. However, this is union of less than 100 people. That's small enough to fit them all in a modest room and talk to everyone in person.
  Maybe this union will eventually turn into something crappy, but I think it's going to be a very different dynamic, at least for a while.

  Parent

  • Re:Always Kickstart a Nazi in the face (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @08:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @08:24PM (#961149)

    And before Unions... the workers were very happy?

    Parent

• Re:Always Kickstart a Nazi in the face (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @06:37PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @06:37PM (#961102)

  Their enforcer, Fat TMB put a permanent IP ban on me. One month and counting still IP banned, maybe he's just bent out of shape that VPNs are a thing? The self-righteous "free speech" ethos of SN is just a thin cover for the radicalization and propaganda that is promoted around here.

  Parent