Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bit_logic 647 days ago
When you hear about unions in software, stop thinking about auto-workers and think about NBA players instead:

https://nbpa.com/

Lebron James and Stephen Curry are in a union and they don't seem to be having any issues making a lot of money.

Or maybe something more similar to software development, the screenwriters guild:

https://www.wga.org/

Again, there are many rich screenwriters, Google for a list of the top paid and it's obvious being in a union hasn't stopped high compensation.
2 comments
morgante 646 days ago
How about I look at actual unions in software, like the NYT tech union that immediately started undermining merit, making illegal demands, and discouraging high performance.

Every actual tech union that exists is a great advertisement for not unionizing.

link
phendrenad2 646 days ago
Bold claim about that tech union. Any evidence?
link
jay-barronville 647 days ago
> When you hear about unions in software, stop thinking about auto-workers and think about NBA players instead:

> https://nbpa.com/

> Lebron James and Stephen Curry are in a union and they don't seem to be having any issues making a lot of money.

> Or maybe something more similar to software development, the screenwriters guild:

> https://www.wga.org/

> Again, there are many rich screenwriters, Google for a list of the top paid and it's obvious being in a union hasn't stopped high compensation.

Your entire focus here is compensation, which wasn’t my focus in everything I listed.

link
JumpCrisscross 647 days ago
Would also note that sports' (and Hollywood's, to a lesser degree) models rely on tightly controlling distribution to a near-monopoly degree. Which, as it happens, describes big tech to a tee.
link
simoncion 646 days ago
> Your entire focus here is compensation, which wasn’t my focus in everything I listed.

It wasn't your focus in everything you listed, but it was in two out of the four of them... which certainly isn't nothing:

> - Top performers won’t be rewarded based on merit anymore because everything becomes about the collective.

> - The incentives for engineers who want to go above and beyond will disappear, because compensation, and everything else, becomes standardized. Instead of an environment where you can negotiate and prove your value, it becomes about fitting into a collective agreement. Hard work and unique contributions should mean something, but they won’t in such an environment.

link