Comment by take_a_breath
6 years ago
== This issue simply must take a back seat to bigger problems in America.==
What if labor rights is actually the single biggest problem that drives all the others?
I can think of things like a higher minimum wage, paid sick leave, anti-discrimination in hiring, maternity/paternity leave, and guaranteed PTO that could be helped by unionization to make us a stronger country, collectively.
Except it doesn't. Labor rights does not have an appreciable affect on racial discrimination, environmental concerns, infrastructure, immigration concerns, defense against the passive/active actions against other hostile nation-states, or a lot of other things.
And no, leveraging a union to force your company to drop a controversial customer has absolutely nothing to do with labor rights, that's just taking advantage of a organization your tribe happens to control
Lots of absolutes and zero sources. I never claimed it was to drop customers, sounds like you are in an argument with yourself.
Unions could absolutely have an impact on racial discrimination and wealth disparities.
Nah, that only makes the labor market less dynamic. It might protect the workers that already have a job, but it will definitely hurt those who don't.
Maybe other labor rights - but definitely not Facebook six-figure-salary labor rights - the context of this post.
The problem is that the anti–union sentiment of the Facebook employees leaks into the tools they build. Facebook may give six–figure salaries, but Facebook Workplace is used by e.g. Walmart, which has a median salary of $19,177 [0] and a notoriously bad track record of labor violations.
[0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-walmart-the-ceo-makes-1-188-...
Why tech workers should unionize is to have a say in their company's values and deeds. [1] And when a company has an enormous influence on our country, its employees should (and do) want to be part of decisions.
It's okay, society can handle more than one issue at a time.
1. https://www.wired.com/story/how-kickstarter-employees-formed...