Does anybody know what motivated the unionization effort? This is relevant to me as a Fastmail customer, because if the employees aren't being treated well that's a very poor reflection of the company.
So all of the comments I've seen so far are (predictably) armchair snark from both sides of the political spectrum. Perhaps the reason for this is that there is a very conspicuous lack of information here. For all we _actually_ know, this could be a fake account posting a fake announcement to a fake twitter.
1. Why did the Fastmail employees decide to form a union? Were the working conditions poor? Was the pay below market rate? Abnormal working hours? Not enough vacation or maternal/paternal leave?
2. Has Fastmail released a statement on this? What is their position?
3. Who comprises the leadership of this union?
4. What is the charter or mission of the union? (What are they seeking to accomplish or remedy?)
5. What percentage of Fastmail workers are members of the union? (Does the union have a target membership percentage?)
6. Is the union seeking to renegotiate the employment contracts of its members at this time? If not, are they expecting to in the future?
7. Will it be possible to work at Fastmail in the future without being a union member, or will union membership be (formally or informally) compulsory?
8. Who are the members of the union? (By job type, I mean. Engineers? HR? Janitorial staff? Managers?)
9. Does the union charge dues and how much?
10. Are there union meetings and if so, how often?
11. What action can a union member take if they disagree with a union decision, or the overall direction the union is taking?
It is being downvoted because it is making an unsound claim without any backing.
Most likely there is not a single explanation, usually issues like these are more complicated then that. There is no consensus on whether unions are more powerful in the US then elsewhere, I’m sure you can easily find examples—or spin the narrative—to back either case. And finally there is no evidence for some ulterior motive of driver’s unions, nor even a convincing narrative. Quite the contrary there is both evidence and a somewhat convincing narrative for why the ride-share companies would want to keep their workers from unionizing and asking for full-time worker’s benefits.
Not sure why he's getting downvoted. Unions are only interested in company's existence but even then very often they are willing to see it go to the brink not budging on concessions etc. Not to mention the whole objection to the "right to work" approach.
You think every union vote involves the company secretly and illegally cajoling the USPS to install a mail box, monitored by the company, right by the warehouse entrance?
I think the union failure they are referencing is the weak accountability that the union is holding USPS to. The union signed off on this money order compromise even though it has significant disadvantages for the workers and gives full absolution to USPS.
The root failure here is USPS no question, but the union response is weak.
on Reddit a well-reasoned "unions suck" comment will get downvoted.
I'd imagine that would depend on what subreddit the thread was in. Frontpage? Yeah, probably. Then again, if it is well reasoned, there will also be people pointing out that the downvotes are frivolous, and agreeing with points and debating.
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