1 point

Yes, let’s resist fascism with consumerism.

Completely ignoring how one empowers the other…

permalink
report
reply
1 point

The post didn’t promote consumerism in any way. It said, if you’re a tech worker you should unionize and sabotage authoritarian work where you can

permalink
report
parent
reply
35 points

my tech department recently unionized, its great

one of the best things about it is enforcing the “other duties as required” and setting a hard limit on what that means, management has to accept it and they hate that shit

permalink
report
reply
7 points

management has to accept it

Do they have to accept it by law? I’m realizing I don’t really understand how unions work. What is it that actually transfers the power from the company to the workers just by unionizing?

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is where the power is, its a legally binding agreement between the Union and the Employer. The unions have lawyers that have crafted the language and there is a lot of back and forth until its agreed upon and then its binding for both parties.

When you get a union job, the position is represented by the union and the employer has agreed to the CBA. So as the union employee, if I feel that I am be asked to do something outside of my job description, I can request the union to audit the work which puts management under the microscope and well they don’t usually like that so they will create a cold war and force policy adherence to the letter. In the end everyone is usually more clear about what is acceptable and what is not.

But the real power is that if its not in your job description, you can really say no and they cant do anything about it. The “other duties and responsibilities” should never be more then 8 hours in 2 weeks. If it does, it needs to be included as part of your job description. And the union has a death grip on that description with the CBA.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Thanks a lot! 🙏

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

oh yeah the first sentence should have included that the country that the agreement is in, recognizes it and binds both parties to it. So its a 3 party agreement in a sense, with the 3rd party being the courts of the country with laws recognizing the agreement.

The CBA will have a part in it about about strikes. I have been in a few unions that agreed in the CBA that we would not walk out strike, but we would do things like everyone wearing the same shirt or during lunch hour, gathering in the street in front of the workplace. It has a good optic and imo most of the time, the people directly in charge of you don’t want to make waves with the union. its a good balance of power that is beneficial to everyone

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

Laws obv vary by country, but in the US, a corporation is legally required to recognize and bargain with a union if over 30% of their employees choose to unionize.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Thanks! 🙏

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

but in the US, a corporation is legally required to

For now, until Trump decides to make unions illegal

permalink
report
parent
reply
36 points
*

Solid post from Drew, agree with everything there.

He mentions doing your best to join in your local communities with like minded folk. Here’s a good guide on how and where those folk might be to join up with.

And if you follow his advice to unionize, I highly recommend the IWW. They’ll help you form a grassroots union that’s directly controlled by you and your coworkers. And they’ll help you no matter what kind of job you have! Beefing it up is one of the best things we can do to resist.

permalink
report
reply
11 points
*

I’ve been saying this for such a long time, the tech industry needs unions. It also needs crowd sourced legal assistance as well because it isn’t going to be easy. They’ll fire of course at first despite being illegal, then they’ll want migrants that they can threaten with deportation if they don’t comply. Even if Trump goes away, unions will be necessary to keep corporations accountable.

Although I don’t support sabotage for the time being & strongly oppose it in almost every way. It isn’t just risky, but I feel many times it ends up legitimizing the groups you’re trying to protect others from. I feel it would make matters substantially worse before the potential of making things better, but at that point you may have just invited the next generation of fascism to use your actions to justify theirs.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

It also needs crowd sourced legal assistance

Basically any union in Germany has access to an army of lawyers, your dues double as legal insurance covering anything related to work and welfare.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

Yes, but even before you get to that point. Like I said they’ll fight dirty at first, so having assistance to even be able to get to that point requires community efforts.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

I don’t support sabotage for the time being

What a wild goddamn thing to say when US citizen children with cancer are being rounded up and deported to countries they’ve never lived in. Please, share. Where have you drawn the line?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

I didn’t say not to draw a line. I just said I was opposed to sabbatoge for the time being. There are lots of other things you can do right now to work towards restoring diplomacy.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

It isn’t just risky, but I feel many times it ends up legitimizing the groups you’re trying to protect others from.

Fascists don’t need you to justify their fascism.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

I tend to agree, but not entirely.

The point I was making here is you start sabotaging & can end up harming people that may have been allies. As they say, the road to hell is often paved with good intentions.

Second, the more you start demanding people do what you want else you’ll sabotage, attack them, etc… Your ideas really aren’t that much different than those of fascists either.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

No one was talking about sabotage

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points
*

Maybe go actually read the blog post before you make it so obvious that you didn’t.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Technology

!technology@lemmy.world

Create post

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


Community stats

  • 18K

    Monthly active users

  • 8.9K

    Posts

  • 227K

    Comments