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  • Hacker News
  • Unions at least in the European setting not really effective in protecting workers in the way people seem to imagine. The labor laws are somewhat but not really. It just increases the cost of getting rid of people and reduces mobility. So i don’t know what utopian view people have of unions but reality does not reflect that. It also leads to a salaried class of union representatives inside big companies that causes their own problems as they are the ones granting favors and benefits to their friends.
    by christkv
  • Seems entirely reasonable and I would hope will be accepted as such by the management.
    by ggm
  • Have the WMF done something bad that needs counterbalancing or are they just forming a union out of some sort of principle?
    by jl6
  • > The workers are longtime contributors and organisers, and are deeply committed to the Wikimedia movement.

    It always starts this way, and ends with over half the people not bothered but still under union protection, and cannot be removed.

    by philipallstar
  • I've been mostly resistant to unionization for my whole career, but I think now is the right time. Between AI and H1B, the pool of jobs available for engineers is getting smaller and smaller, especially at the low end.

    When you destroy the entry level position, you also destroy the pipeline that creates senior engineers, a shortage of which is used as leverage to increase H1B in America.

    by declan_roberts
  • Man, it's sad how far the wiki foundation has fallen.

    For (literally) decades no one there would have even thought of forming a union! To get them to not only consider it, but actually go through the effort of actually doing it ... the foundation truly has shit the bed.

    by hungryhobbit
  • There is no reason for any employee to not search for unionization. It is your right and it is in your best interest. Good for them.
    by Frieren
  • This is the same press release from the union as at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48663861, and the same discussion points apply as there, including the fact that the press release is conflating 'Wikipedia Workers' and 'British-based employees at the Wikimedia Foundation'. The two are not the same.

    This conflation appears to be the fault of the union. Certainly the people who write Wikipedia well know the difference between themselves and the Wikimedia Foundation staff.

    by JdeBP

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