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from the look-for-the-union-label-hyperlink dept.
The Center for American Progress reports:
[June 3], Gawker Media voted to unionize. The stats: 107 of 118 eligible voters cast secret ballots, 80 of whom voted yes. Just like that, Gawker will become the first digital-only news site to have a union.
Hamilton Nolan, longtime Gawker writer, announced the editorial staff's decision to organize in a post this April. At the time, he listed the motivations: that a union "is the only real mechanism that exists to represent the interest of employees in a company," the continued pursuit of fair and transparent salaries, and the ability to make a little history as the first major site of its kind to organize.
According to Gawker senior writer Sam Biddle, who answered questions via email, "The origin of the union isn't any particular grievance or crisis---we all love our jobs and our workplace, and thought a union would be a great way to protect that, and make it even better for ourselves and our colleagues." In his five years at Gawker, he doesn't recall unionizing being "seriously discussed."
"I think it happened now because the [Writers Guild of America, East] was so enthusiastic about making this happen for us," he said. "It didn't take very much convincing, to be honest."
[...] Both [WGA and Gawker] insist the desire to form a union arose from a desire for the perks of organization, not as a reaction to poor working conditions.
Original Submission
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Tuesday June 23 2015, @04:44AM
I bet the work continuity of employees will go up. and I'm 100% behind them; unions ARE the only thing that speaks for the employees. the last 20 or even 30 years have been BRUTAL to worker's rights. we have lost, maybe half of what we won in our grandfather's day (or, maybe that's your great grandfather, at this point). my GF had weekends off, time and a half for overtime, double time and even triple time for holidays. they had to allow you time to eat every 4 hours (or maybe it was 5; it was a long time ago when my GF was telling me these stories). he had a pension, he had a big retirement party and he worked there for over 35 years.
that (all of that) does not exist anymore, for the most part. I will be lucky to work for the same place for even 2 years. I won't be offered fulltime with benefits, I'll get contract 'you pay your own sick and vacation and HC costs, buddy!' work or nothing at all. no one offers us 50+ guys f/t jobs anymore, at least not in the bay area and not for engineering work. I won't have a pension, I won't have even social security (many think this is going to be the case) and I get NO overtime, no matter what. and yes, I'm still asked to work extra hours; that is when I'm actually employed (which I'm not, right now).
you folks who think you are too good for unions and who are 'supermen, young and strong' - you'll have a fucking RUDE AWAKENING in no time flat. it will hit you like a ton of bricks and you will say 'gee, I was doing SO WELL until I was 35!'. but there won't be a union to speak up for you and some new young hotshot will have taken your place.
you will work till you die and you'll be glad to flip burgers and ask 'you want fries with that?'.
because, WE SOFTWARE PEOPLE ARE STRONG! WE DON'T NEED UNIONS! THOSE ARE ONLY FOR THE WEAKLINGS. NOT ME! I DON'T WANT TO BE HELD BACK BY SOME SLACKER. I'M A SUPER CODER!
think about that in a decade or two.
but also think about what could stop the imbalance of power that the US employers all seem to have right now. they are unified against you. why won't you unify against them?
the old bad unions had issues but you think things are BETTER now that companies can abuse you and dispose of you and get away scot-free like they do now?
even a bad union is better than nothing. I'd rather see 2 big guys (who are not me) fight than one big guy mopping up the floor with ME.
think about it. do you truly believe there is a balance of power in today's workplace?
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by pogostix on Tuesday June 23 2015, @05:00AM
Are you in a union? I was for years. It was one of the bad old ones and you have no idea how bad it was. (corrupt)
I identify with the concept of unions but why don't we check in a year from now and see what the reality is in this case.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pogostix on Tuesday June 23 2015, @05:05AM
And I hear your pain. Enforced minimum employment standards perhaps. My experience with the reality of unions is they don't work.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 23 2015, @06:53AM
MY fuckin Union works. Mostly it keeps ass kissing bastard like you out of the ranks. You will get promoted to admin with talk like that, and you will end up working 60-80 hour weeks thinking you are furthering your career! GO! Lundberg! We are all pulling for you! Yes, someday you will be able to live off your investments, like the people you work for now! Until, they decide to retroactively reduce your retirement, like is happening in Greece. You see, a contract is a contract, until it is made to a pathetic bastard standing all by himself with no union to back him up. That would be you, then.
Why have so many of GenX bought the corporate anti-union propaganda? It's like they would vote for mother-xxxxxing Republicans that would pass laws to f*** them over, knowing full well that they would. Frogs with a scorpion on their back, I say.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @02:47PM
Why do you think we were 'latchkey kids'? It's because it took two parents working their asses off to keep even basic food on the table. (My own hate of Hamburger Helper, Meatloaf, and Lima beans means even seeing it on a table for human consumption is outright rage-inducing)
I grew up in an era - the 70's and 80's - where the Steel Workers Union had made so many demands on US Steel at a time when the entire economy was in the shitter and the entire steel industry was fighting off Japanese Steel imports. US Steel couldn't accede to Union demands and the Steel Workers Union refused to concede *anything* that they were forced to close the Fairless Hills Steel Mill and 20,000 jobs were lost overnight because of the flat out ignorance and refusal of the Unions to cooperate with management to keep the mills alive when the Japanese were kicking their collective bargaining asses. Over and over we've watched unions in labor negotiations at the bargaining table with outrageous demands and committing employment suicide as a result - and in the case of Detroit, turn *an entire city* into an apocalyptic wasteland.
I've been a member of two unions and what it taught me was that if you're a total rock star and B.A.M.F. in what you do, it doesn't matter because no matter how good you are the slug in the next cube gets the same pay. Unions discourage real success and personal achievement by punishing them for doing so - you can't make more for being the best at something - so it encourages de facto lazy behavior. Union leaders complain about corporate 'fat cats' while living in multimillion dollar mansions and flying in private jets while they take money from members pockets. In the end, the workers get screwed by the Union but eat, live, breath, and mouth the propaganda so much that they are blind to the hypocrisy of it all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @07:41PM
And you think that *without* the union you'd be getting paid better for better performance? What fantasy world do you live in?
(Score: 2) by pogostix on Tuesday June 23 2015, @07:24PM
>> MY fuckin Union works. Mostly it keeps ass kissing bastard like you out of the ranks.
Are there no problems in your union... no *serious* problems? Or are you just blind to them with all your ra-ra-ra?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @07:37PM
And when that happens, they'll get to be on the receiving end of all the victim-blaming. "You wouldn't be poor if you had learned to save your money", "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!", etc. And nothing will change for the better.