[schrototo]

Why is there a need to reconcile? Worker’s rights trump ROI. If you can’t run a profitable company without discriminating against and exploiting your workers, you shouldn’t run a company at all.

Also, look towards more socialist countries (e.g. Germany), for practical strategies to keep making money while at the same time ensuring people don’t get exploited. Hint: empowering workers, letting them unionize and collectively bargain, treating them as humans rather than “Human Resources”, will not actually significantly decrease your ROI.

[rpiguy]

The effect of unionization had the opposite effect in Germany, Denmark, etc. It caused a huge shift to contract work. Contractors have more protections in those countries than they do here, but do not enjoy nearly the same protections as full time employees.

http://ec.europa.eu/epsc/publications/strategic-notes/future...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/business/europe-labor-rig...

I admit that the social protections in those countries generally means that the shift to contractor work is less likely to affect things like cost of healthcare, retirement, etc.

Some big US tech companies might be zombies (IBM, HP), but with our less restrictive labor laws and emphasis on entrepreneurship they have been replaced with new giants (Google, Facebook, etc.)

This did not happen in the tech sector in Europe, the giants fell, Bull, Nokia, etc. and nothing rose up to their size outside of the banking sector. Part of the reason may have been that the overall environment was not flexible enough to allow new entrants, among many other factors. SAP remains strong, but I can't think of another pure software/IT company in Europe of that size or market position.

[schrototo]

Neither of the articles you link to say that unionisation is the reason for the ongoing shift to contract work, or even mention unions at all...

If anything, (stronger) unions are exactly what contract workers need.

What caused the shift to contract work? Greed. Greedy employers who don't want to give up the tiniest bit of profit to pay for living wages, health benefits, retirement plans or workplace safety, and then have the gall to re-brand deregulation as freedom.

[forapurpose]

> The effect of unionization had the opposite effect in Germany, Denmark, etc. It caused a huge shift to contract work.

There's been a big shift to contract work in the US too, where unions are relatively very weak.

[berbec]

> Worker’s rights trump ROI

<s>Where? Do they accept skilled immigrants? What Rosetta Stone do I need to buy. </s>

At least in the America I see around me, this is very untrue in the vast majority of cases.