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by roguecoder 1462 days ago
Unionizing isn't "drastic": it is the norm for most trades in the United States. Any individual union is basically just you & your coworkers crowd sourcing employment lawyers you wouldn't afford individually.

Until Boeing got taken over by finance people, the Boeing engineering guild had spent decades being a book club. It is only when things go wrong that unionization significantly changes how we work.
1 comments
tiffanyh 1462 days ago
> “crowd sourcing employment lawyers”

How is that not drastic?

You’re own words are saying unionizing is to bring in lawyers to be used against your employer.

EDIT: to answer your question below since I can’t reply.

No, it’s not drastic for a company to have lawyers. A company needs to ensure they are staying regulatory compliant, not breaking laws and de-risking company … that’s what the lawyers are doing.

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roguecoder 1462 days ago
They "de-risk" the company by making sure employees have as little power as possible, as few protections as possible, are as open to exploitation as possible, are paid as little as possible, have as little job mobility as possible, and have as little claim to their independent intellectual property as they can legally enforce.

That's what "derisk" means: it means the company is protected from your interests.

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chipotle_coyote 1462 days ago
“It’s not drastic for a company to have lawyers” is probably the point that was being made. It’s not drastic for a company to have lawyers; it shouldn’t be drastic for a union—or in this case, a union organizing effort—to have lawyers as well.
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tiffanyh 1462 days ago
If you feel like you have lawyer-up just to go to work, that’s probably a signal you shouldn’t be working there.
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roguecoder 1462 days ago
If one party doesn't have a lawyer look over legal contracts they are signing and the other party does, all they are doing is putting themselves at a disadvantage in a business relationship.

I see why that is advantageous for companies that get to employ workers at a disadvantage. I don't understand why it would be good for workers.

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jacobolus 1462 days ago
So in other words companies should pay teams of legal experts to fight against workers’ interests, but if workers want to hire an expert of their own to prevent themselves from being exploited they “shouldn’t be working there”?
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skybrian 1462 days ago
It depends what you mean by "lawyer up." Having a lawyer look at any contracts you sign isn't a bad idea.

(Not that I've done it.)

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roguecoder 1462 days ago
The company has lawyers: is that drastic?
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