• TheWorstMailman@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    85
    arrow-down
    26
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Linus “spoke out” against unionizing by saying that he couldn’t legally do anything to stand in the way of his employees unionizing and wouldn’t want to stand in their way if they ever decided to. But he wants to make a workplace where people don’t feel the need to and if they did then he would see it as a personal failure.

    There’s plenty to criticize Linus for right now, but I don’t think that his “anti-union” stance is one of them

    Edit: in the context of these allegations, then yes, his employees certainly should unionize if the actual criminal crimes in this thread are even partially true. And if that happens then I will be singing Solidarity Forever for the LMG employees, but until that happens and we see how Linus responds to that this is just not a good read on Linus’ stance towards unions.

    Edit2: it feels weird to have posted what could be seen as a defense of Linus under this particular post. I’m not a Linus Stan, Just a union advocate that wants criticism to be levied where it’s actually called for and this doesn’t seem like it is

    • nonearther@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      79
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m not saying he meant anti-union by that line, but that’s classic anti-union line saying my employees don’t need unions.

      Very much in line of “unions means less money for you” statement.

      • Raltoid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        75
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Yeah the whole “I love unions, but we at this company are a family so we don’t need that”, is peak anti-union talk. Throughout history it’s been used by people who are horrible to their employees.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          1 year ago

          Exactly. If I was really concerned about my employees etc. I would want them to have a union with power that could match mine to argue their needs and concerns. If he had a union a lot of these problems and mistakes that he’s having likely wouldn’t have occurred.

      • TheWorstMailman@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        True. If he said that line in response to a statement about wages. I can’t say that I exactly remember the context in which he made that statement, but I believe that it (ironically, given this post) had more to do with workplace culture than wages.

      • sugar_in_your_tea
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yup, there’s certainly correlation, especially with the “trust me bro” warranty discussion they had (see GN video about it, I think they also link to the relevant WAN show).

        But correlation does not prove motive, so we’d only know what his actual stance is in how he responds to unionizing efforts. That hasn’t happened, and now that he has a separate CEO, he could potentially use that CEO as the scapegoat.

        I don’t trust him, but I can’t say that he’s strictly anti-union.

      • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        It’s not unusual for several people to have the same rational thought process. That’s why it’s “classic”.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      49
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      An genuine employer who isn’t against unions and has their employees wellbeing as a top priority should encourage the employees to unionize.

        • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          If I ever start a corporation and if for some reason it isn’t a workers co-op, I will make the employees unionize. I see little reason other than absolute profit maximization to not treat your employees as a great asset, assuming they’re doing reasonably well. But I’m a dirty socialist so…

          • TheWorstMailman@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            Dirty? Nah, you’re fresh as hell, comrade. Workers co-ops are great

            I guess I have my own special version of pessimism where if I see an employer not actively hiring Pinkertons I think if it add a little w for workers these days

      • sugar_in_your_tea
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I’m not convinced.

        I have two uncles who worked for the same company, in different departments but in similar roles. Both were engineers, one was a CAE, and the other an ME. The CAE was not part of a union, and the ME was. They had a comparable lifestyle, so I assume they made a comparable salary (they live about a mile from each other, in a similarly sized house, drive similar cars, take similar amounts of vacations, etc).

        Here’s the work history of my unionized uncle:

        • multiple unpaid strikes, where the main output was a marginal benefit to employees (from tertiary sources, it wasn’t worth the strike)
        • layoff (maybe 2? I don’t recall), and later rehire in a separate department (was laid off for months); this resulted in complications with the company pension (I think the pension got rolled into the 401k because the new group hadn’t negotiated a pension)
        • consistent work location - always worked at the same plant, except for a handful of visits to others

        And here’s the work history of my non-unionized uncle:

        • no layoffs, and optional participation in strikes
        • inconsistent work location, but had some WFH flexibility in the last 15-ish years of employment (i.e. could work 9/80s, WFH one day/week, etc)
        • maintained control over retirement benefits, so retired with a pension and a 401k

        This is obviously a very small sample, so it’s hardly enough evidence to say whether unions are a net positive or net negative. So whether a union is better for you depends on a lot of factors, such as:

        • role - white collar jobs benefit less from unions vs blue collar jobs
        • unions can suck, and non-unionized employers can rock; the latter can change overnight, whereas the former likely won’t
        • your best tool is your own personal skillset; regardless of whether you’re in a union, ensure your skills are up-to-date so you have a good chance of getting a new job should you lose yours

        But one thing that should be universally true is that openly anti-union employers should be avoided.

        • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          That wasn’t quite the point. What would be a good reason for a well meaning, rocking employer to not encourage unionization?

          • sugar_in_your_tea
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Lots of reasons:

            • union dues
            • bureaucracy - need to go through the union
            • unwanted strikes - if your union goes on strike, you are not allowed to work
            • special treatment - unions try to equalize, so higher performers may not be fairly compensated

            An awesome employer shouldn’t discourage unionization, and ideally they’d encourage attempts to unionize, but they wouldn’t recommend unionization, assuming the employer intended to maintain control and monitor managers throughout the chain. If the employer can provide all of the benefits employees would get through unionization, unionizing merely adds extra BS that employees and employers need to deal with.

            • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Alright, so let’s take a look.

              • union dues

              No escaping this one.

              • bureaucracy - need to go through the union

              What does the employer have to go through the union for?

              • unwanted strikes - if your union goes on strike, you are not allowed to work

              If the employer is rocking, why would union members vote to strike?

              • special treatment - unions try to equalize, so higher performers may not be fairly compensated

              This doesn’t feel right but I can’t quite put my finger on why so I’ll reserve judgement for now. 😄

              I can see the extra layer of overhead in the case when everything is perfect, but given the incentives in traditional for-profit corporations I can’t see that case ever being realistic. In addition, even if a company is perfect today, the way corporations are structured makes it incredibly easy for that to change especially if there’s no worker-controlled counterbalance to such change. So just on the basis of that, if I’m an awesome, perfect employer, and I presumably want this to go on, because that really is part of being awesome, I should want to create this counterbalance against change for the worse. Assuming a for-profit, not-a-co-op corporation that is. It looks to me like this overhead is the price of preserving this perfect environment over the long term. Doesn’t that make sense?

              • sugar_in_your_tea
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                What does the employer have to go through the union for?

                Benefits, and depending on the union’s rules, salary adjustments. Some unions also require informing them of schedule changes.

                The reverse is also true, employees may need to go through the union depending on the union’s rules.

                If the employer is rocking, why would union members vote to strike?

                Idk, perhaps communication issues w/ management? Over-zealous union leadership?

                The point is, the employee isn’t empowered here, they’re subject to whatever the union agrees to do.

                My uncle went through multiple strikes, few (if any) he actually agreed with, but had to deal with being out of work. He wished he wasn’t union so he could just continue working.

                the way corporations are structured makes it incredibly easy for that to change

                Sure, which is why it absolutely depends on the type of organization. Something owner-operated has a much lower risk of unexpected awful changes than something publicly traded.

                A lot of owner-operated businesses don’t intend to sell to someone else, the owner will just shut it down when they’re done operating it. So “long term” in this sense is until the owner retires. And if they do intend to sell, they could at that point encourage the employees to make any employment adjustments needed.

    • snor10@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      Lol, sounds like what someone with a reputation to uphold would say if he hated the idea of his workers unionizing.

      It’s manipulative doublespeak meant to discourage unionization.

      The employer is by nature profit-seeking and all communication must be viewed through this lens.