Chronotope’s avatarChronotope’s Twitter Archive—№ 76,672

                                          1. Tech has led the way in making labor fear unionization. These structures and discrimination in tech cos are not an accident. Starts w/VCs. Jeffrey_Baird/833544567152603136
                                        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                          I've written about this before, but to keep it short: the technology startup industry is dependent on over-utilization of labor.
                                      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                        You're expected to work for more hours than you are paid for. You will never get paid overtime. Never be offered a non-contingent contract.
                                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                      Tech moves too fast and doesn't give room for training. You will be expected to work your weekends learning things necessary for your job
                                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                    They will try and paper this up with free beer and ping pong tables & paying for you to get bussed in and more, but that isn't compensation
                                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                  VCs discourage unionization because unionization means they cannot maximize their use of labor. And their model requires labor be maximized.
                              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                It also requires contingent work, workers who are not easily replaceable gears are bad for the business model.
                            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                              And that maximization of labor enriches buddies of VCs and management who get choice jobs and over-inflated salaries.
                          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                            Technology startups work on models that require everyone to be replaceable. If you're told someone isn't, it has to do with who they know.
                        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                          Exactly, all startups must maximize exploitation of labor, any unionization is seen as an obstacle: AthertonKD/833550107349966848
                      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                        Startups are built on abusing labor. That's intrinsic to their model: Chronotope/817415284772446209
                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                      The entire marketplace would collapse if tech worker unionization occurred Chronotope/812913516340543490
                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                    Philosophy: tech believes they can abuse labor until Market says enough, but market can't account for labor's fear Chronotope/633678492937396224
                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                  At the end of the day you can't both disrupt an industry AND compensate your workers properly. Guess what SV choses? Chronotope/813775079066783746
              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                The risks for high-paid low-security technology workers are just too high. They will never unionize w/o regulation to better support them.
            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
              And because the risk is too high, the privileged in the system (read: white, male, upper-class) will always be able to abuse labor at will.
          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
            The privileged in the technology sector can abuse labor by forcing over-work. They can also do it with discrimination and harassment.
        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
          This is the gig economy in action. When your company enforces shadow labor markets, the effects permeate up aramzs.kinja.com/the-gig-economy-and-its-discontents-1686617213
      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
        With "Uber for X" it's hard to enforce good labor conditions when the whole goal of your company is to destroy labor protection.
    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
      If you're surprised this is happening at Uber itself you haven't paid attention to it's *entire business model* susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber
      OpenGraph image for susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber
  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
    As long as tech companies make "fully optimizing" their labor core to the business plan they will burn any bridge to prevent unionization.
    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
      Are you working, right now, on a contingent "at-will" contract? That means you are replaceable at an instant, no matter what mgmt says.
      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
        At the end of the day, the irony is that contingent workers will not do their best work, will be worse at innovation, b/c they are afraid.
        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
          That's right. Silicon Valley's labor policies are actually anti-innovation.
          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
            But the stock, boom, bust, unicorn structure of startups isn't really about innovation. It is about maxing board member/VC profits.
            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
              If you're not a board member or a VC or a friend of either you aren't *ever* going to be compensated properly.
              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                Because, haha, where do you think CEO pay inflation comes from? It comes from not fully compensating labor. fortune.com/2015/06/22/ceo-vs-worker-pay/
                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                  There's no real solution for this as long as tech workers are afraid b/c of the current labor structure and law.
                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                    And I don't really see the law becoming more friendly to labor organization in the current political client. Do you?


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