[davexunit]

No it's not about that person. This isn't about RMS saying something that some of us disagree with and looking past it. It's much bigger than that. For example, RMS made the working environment at the FSF so bad that the staff unionized. The working environment is still bad (staff either burn out trying to make things better or get fired for some reason) but at least RMS can't fire people on a whim and the staff get bereavement leave (RMS was opposed to it) and cost of living pay adjustments (also opposed).

[africanboy]

So in other words at the FSF workers are free to unionize like in the rest of the civilized World, while if you work at Amazon you have to pee in a bottle and be happy about it.

[dralley]

https://twitter.com/paulnivin/status/1377079987950395393

[africanboy]

I think we should start a discussion about a simple fact: the World is huge, US is only a small part of it.

For example: RMS did not believe in providing raises — prior cost of living adjustments were a battle and not annual. RMS believed that if a precedent was created for increasing wages, the logical conclusion would be that employees would be paid infinity dollars and the FSF would go bankrupt.

That's unlawful in Italy to avoid salary discrimination where people in poorer areas (the South) are paid less for the same job.

It's considered a great victory by Italian huge worker unions.

Or this other one

RMS created non-safe spaces at both MIT & the FSF. When I was at the FSF, RMS had little to no empathy for the staff. The FSF was not a healthy, functional workplace. We formed a union to help protect ourselves from RMS — he controlled our pay, benefits, and workplace conditions.

Again, this is totally subjective.

It's a work place not a kindergarten, you don't like the place you leave, we are talking about software engineers not cleaning staff, they'd have a chance anywhere else.

this is simply this guy personally holding a grudge against RMS, but there's nothing objectively bad here.

You know what's really bad? that it happens at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple l, but you don't know because workers simply can't talk about it.

Low paid workers fear of losing their salary, high paid workers don't care about them and also don't want to lose their huge benefits and say screw them

What is terrifying is people thinking that knowing something is worse than not knowing because if you talk, it's bad for you.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/05/amazon-pr...

What is bad IMO is thinking that unions are inherently a bad thing, but I am glad they exist and I am member myself of one of them in Italy that has 5.5 million other members and I gladly pay monthly to be part of it,even though I rarely need them they offer free services and protection to all the workers.

If nobody has been fired, harrased or threatened for proposing to unionize, that's a great plus in my book that puts the FSF ahead of many other job places in the US.