My highlights:<p>> 90% of the workers indicated their support for joining CWA and authorized CWA to be their bargaining representative<p>> about half of whom work in the New York City headquarters and half of whom work remotely throughout the country<p>> Employees at major American tech and game companies have grown increasingly active and outspoken about workplace issues, including sexual assault and harassment, ageism, unequal pay, “crunch time” (i.e. long-term overtime and overworking), poor treatment of contract workers, inadequate racial and gender diversity, and lack of transparency and inclusion in decision-making around controversial contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<p>> “We appreciate that unlike so many employers, the Glitch management team decided to respect the rights of its workforce to choose union representation without fear or coercion."<p>> CWA was founded by telecom workers, and supports media workers through its Newsguild-CWA and NABET-CWA sectors.
Here is a question:<p>Why don't we have more smaller unions in America, but instead these GIANT mega unions?<p>I get collective bargaining is better with more numbers, but it feels like there is no way to have a "new" union exist?
Interesting development. Glitch used to be Fog Creek, where Joel Spolsky talked of treating developers well (latest hardware, private offices etc) and paying them well. I wonder if the culture has changed and that's why the developers felt the need to create a union.<p>[<a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/09/07/a-field-guide-to-developers-2/" rel="nofollow">https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/09/07/a-field-guide-to-d...</a>]
I hope the CWA treats them better than they treat the SUNY grad students they represent.<p>All State University of New York graduate students are also represented by CWA. [1] Out of the lowly salary I earned as a grad student, I had to pay dues to them throughout the entire five years I spent in grad school. I never felt like they particularly cared about us or got to see a return on this investment.<p>They made a show of coming by the campus once in a while, especially when elections were happening, but other than that I can't recall a single time where I felt it was beneficial to be part of the CWA.<p>[1] <a href="https://cwa1104.com/apprenticeship-program" rel="nofollow">https://cwa1104.com/apprenticeship-program</a>
I've been hearing for a long time that there were attempts at making a union at Microsoft back in nineties.<p>Anybody privy to the info how it fared?
Ignorant question. But how do union dues work? Is it a percentage of your paycheck or a fixes cost?<p>Also I assume there’s a formation/founding cost. How does that work?
Do unions (specifically this union) promote and standardize levels of craftsmanship or is that still an unsolved problem?<p>I kinda wish proper guilds would become a thing in tech. I feel they could solve both the craftsmanship and workers rights problems but oh well...
The recent flowering of union membership in the tech industry really warms my heart and makes me hope that this is the start of a pro-union resurgence nation-wide that reverses the conservative anti-union backlash that has dominated the US for decades.<p>Unfortunately, conservatives have been mostly successful in gaining control of the courts, so expect union-busting measures to be rubber-stamped by them.<p>There is likely to be much conflict between labor and owners.
For a union, it's concerning when some things are more tailored to the whims, edge cases, personal niches of the most vocal, rather than shielding the common denominator of the cooperative from management's business decisions.<p>I'd like to explain what I like, and what I'm concerned about:<p>> Employees at major American tech and game companies have grown increasingly active and outspoken about workplace issues,<p>Very union related, that's what unions are for.<p>> including sexual assault and harassment,<p>Already unlawful. They are addressable to the NLRB and civil legal system.<p>> ageism,<p>That's vague, but there are protections against this<p>> unequal pay,<p>Not sure what this means, pay between workers of the same level of seniority performing the same responsibilities? Overtime? A lot of things factor into equal pay. A junior employee isn't going to make as much as a 20 year employee.<p>> “crunch time” (i.e. long-term overtime and overworking),<p>Looks right. These are covered in union contracts<p>> poor treatment of contract workers,<p>If they have union membership? Wouldn't it be about defining a standard of what a salaried employee is?<p>> inadequate racial and gender diversity,<p>What does that mean? Inadequate to whom? What makes those characteristics worthy but other characteristics not?<p>I find it very hurtful and insensitive to people who struggle, suffer, overcome odds, from difficult upbringings, but not member of some class or facet. Why reduce the struggle, character, and worth of someone down to those things? Where does this come from?<p>What does this say to your colleagues who don't have these traits? Do they have life easy? Have you walked a mile in their shoes?<p>> and lack of transparency and inclusion in decision-making around controversial contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<p>That is not the kind of decision I think employees should be deciding. Though if a larger organization wanted to allow someone to move somewhere else in the org, that seems fair