Support NeoGAF

[Helios]

Kickstarter Workers Form First Union in Tech Industry

Employees at Kickstarter voted to form a union on February 18th, NBC News reports, forming the first union in the tech industry in the United States.

nichegamer.com

Employees at Kickstarter voted to form a union on February 18th, NBC News reports, forming the first union in the tech industry in the United States.

After an 18-month “battle” with management, and an employee vote of 36 to 47 in favor of unionizing, Kickstarter United will now be recognized by management. The vote was held by the National Labor Relations Board. NBC News reports this is “the first union comprised of white-collar, full-time employees in the technology industry.”

In September 2019, Kickstarter fired two staff members who were attempting to form a union- Clarissa Redwine and Taylor Moore. Kickstarter representatives denied this was over them forming a union. Five then-former and current employees later reached out to Slate, claiming “managers didn’t follow their normal procedure for a worker who is not meeting company standards.”

The issues the union had included “salary equity, diversity in hiring, and wanting a seat at the table when it comes to company decisions.” A former employee also stated to Slate “We all chose to work at Kickstarter because it was kind of an anti-capitalistic company to start out with, like with the collective funding structure and the public benefit corporation [status].”

Another contributing factor was due to Kickstarter’s management pulling the crowdfunding for the “Always Punch Nazis” satirical comic book (regarding the allegedly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017)- after an exposé by Breitbart claimed it violated their own terms of service.

Anonymous employees claimed to Slate that the majority of staff were “livid,” and that there was vocal protest, and at least one engineer threatening to quit. In Slate’s words, “shortly thereafter, executives reversed their reversal.”

While an alleged leaked internal memo in March 2019 claimed that senior staff did not desire a union, Slate claims this opinion shifted over time. NBC News reports management signed a “neutrality agreement” in December 2019, preventing them from attempting to dissuade employees from unionizing.

Clarissa Redwine spoke to NBC News about the newly formed union.

“What Kickstarter employees are organizing a union for is the agency to challenge management when management is failing the community. Workers want to be able to participate in critical product decisions without retaliation, to change how the company handles sexual harassment, how it addresses gender discrimination, and they want to take on future challenges with a healthy power structure.”

Things are far from over, as now the union and management negotiate a contract to address the union’s concerns. NBC News reports diversity hiring is also a matter of discussion. CEO Aziz Hasan stated “We support and respect this decision, and we are proud of the fair and democratic process that got us here.”

 

[JunkerWoland]

Admittedly, I wasn't looking hard, but I was surprised at not having seen more stories on this, back when the news broke on Tuesday. I expect the unionization will ultimately lead to ruin, but it'll be interesting to watch as things play-out.

 

[zeorhymer]

So they joined Local 153, Office and Professional Employees International Union. Basically, that local will do all of the collective bargaining for them. Let's see how many people get laid off because of increased costs and how many contract workers fill in the spots. The "diversity in hiring, and wanting a seat at the table when it comes to company decisions" are wishful thinking. Shareholders will balk at that for sure. Good luck to them and hope that the workers don't get used as pawns on both sides.

 

[GHG]

Some people love to play themselves.

 

[iconmaster]

an employee vote of 36 to 47 in favor of unionizing,

This is bizarrely phrased. Other sources have it as 47 in favor, 36 against. Math still works the same in California, at least for now.

Another contributing factor was due to Kickstarter’s management pulling the crowdfunding for the “Always Punch Nazis” satirical comic book (regarding the allegedly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017)- after an exposé by Breitbart claimed it violated their own terms of service.

Hoo boy, it's not just the first tech labor union it's the first tech SJW union.

 

[Iorv3th]

"diversity in hiring" is the most discriminatory bullshit you can have. It's literally quotas and checkmarks based on race/religion/ethnicity/sexual orientation.

Sorry greg, you where great on paper but you just weren't the right color we are looking for at this time.

 

[Barnabot]

imagine being whitey and a programmer.

 

[Harlock]

The same people who block conservative comic book writers who have a ton of success on Indiegogo while push failed SJW comics. Good business.

 

[Afro Republican]

But technically kickstarter isn't in the tech industry.

 

[SlimySnake]

lol their CEO is a guy named Aziz Hasan and they are still bitching about not enough diversity in hiring. how about you follow your CEO's lead who did it without quotas and forced diversity.

 

[Barnabot]

it's another "road paved with good intentions".

 

[The Cockatrice]

The kickstart team, taken from ng comments. What can I say..?

 

[Gargus]

Unions haven't been a positive thing since like 1931. They do not exist to help people, unions are around to make money for people who cant get a real career, but don't want to do any kind of labor. It's a nice career, you sit and siphon money from people for doing nothing really except making some phone calls and filing some paperwork.

If it were me I'd close the company, form a new one and only hire the folks who didn't vote for the union.

"diversity in hiring" is the most discriminatory bullshit you can have. It's literally quotas and checkmarks based on race/religion/ethnicity/sexual orientation.

Sorry greg, you where great on paper but you just weren't the right color we are looking for at this time.

Diversity is a plauge. Instead of diversity we should be all be demanding "fairness" and in that I mean like say at a job you hire the right person for the job and not pay attention to skin color, gender, etc. But no one really wants fairness because being fair is honest and truthful and direct. People want diversity because it's pretty, flashy, thoughtless and lies to all the right people.

If I lost a job to a black dude because he was better qualified I'm cool with that, I mean I'd be disappointed but I'd understand and want to try again., but I'd be quite bitter if he got the job because they have their quota of white folks already. And what truly makes it baffling is that you cant sue for it. But you can sue if you're black and don't get a job or your way.

Sometimes I hate being white because of looking at how much we let everything be fucked up. White people are fucking stupid. Ok so stuff isn't good for gays, blacks, asians, women, etc. Instead of making things fair we rolled over like dogs and over corrected so fucking much everything is way too far the other direction.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Unions are great and aren't anything to be scared of.

 

[diffusionx]

The kickstart team, taken from ng comments. What can I say..?

You say, "You get what you fucking deserve."

 

[Alexios]

I thought unions are supposed to be encompassing a certain field/category/whatever, not just one company. Like, it could be a union about workers in all crowd funding companies, not just Kickstarter. This is just employees of a company stating demands out of the blue. Or so it seems.

Lol @ people trying to ridicule them for their appearance or something, they were whatever before, maybe good as they were hired before the unionizing you despise, but now they wanna unionize let's talk about how their looks are enough to judge their whole being as unworthy, pathetic.

 

[GHG]

The kickstart team, taken from ng comments. What can I say..?

There is nothing to say. Pictures paint a thousand words.

 

[diffusionx]

Unions are great and aren't anything to be scared of.

Unions came out of a world where companies were these enormous factories needed endless supplies of warm bodies and were happy to run them into the ground because there were always more coming off the boat. Over the years they became part of the bureaucracy. They still have their uses, in some limited places that are labor-dependent and can't be easily automated or outsourced. But any white collar worker with a good education, in a well paying job, with lots of opportunities to move, is missing the point (and a lot of money) by advocating for a union.

Are these Kickstarter employees doing ANYTHING that can't be done in India for 10 rupees an hour? If the answer is no, then all they did was give management an incentive to pay Indians 10 rupees an hour to do it.

 

[brap]

The kickstart team, taken from ng comments. What can I say..?

just how we all imagined them

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

The kickstart team, taken from ng comments. What can I say..?

I'm honestly kind of bothered by how utterly unsurprising this is.

 

[TaroYamada]

Unions can work, particularly in the private sector imo. Public sector is dicier. I think they work pretty well in blue collar, private sector environments based on my career history (also this isn't the first "tech" union, there's engineers in unions in Hollywood and in Govt and other places -- I guess they mean first tech union at a tech company). Their stated goals make me think they're going to be unsuccessful. If you happen to end up with a diverse workforce that's great but using it explicitly as a goal in hiring can be illegal.

 

[pr0cs]

issues the union had included “salary equity, diversity in hiring, and wanting a seat at the table when it comes to company decisions.”

Terrible

Let's break this bullshit down
Salary equity - so that useless shit in the next cube, you know, the turd that injects more bugs into the code than he fixes, or that feminist office narc that produces nothing except strife and drama gets paid the same as you for the sake of fairness?
Diversity in hiring - dunno what kinda shit shop these people work at but here people look at your results and previous experience not your race, religion, sexual orientation
Company decisions - sure, though if the company has any decent management it already does that

 

[Arkage]

Lol @ people trying to ridicule them for their appearance or something, they were whatever before, maybe good as they were hired before the unionizing you despise, but now they wanna unionize let's talk about how their looks are enough to judge their whole being as unworthy, pathetic.

Welcome to Gaf's /pol infestation. It'd be nice if these soap box political threads that masqueraded as "gaming" were just quarantined into /pol as well. No politics in my games!

 

[brap]

Welcome to Gaf's /pol infestation. It'd be nice if these soap box political threads that masqueraded as "gaming" were just quarantined into /pol as well. No politics in my games!

lmao ok