Google lays off contractors who unionized last month | Engadget

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Google lays off contractors who unionized last month | Engadget
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No offense, but it seems like a really dumb idea to unionize in the middle of mass industry layoffs.

Maybe you would do it when things are going good, but if everyone around you is getting laid off and you unionize, it almost seems self-evident who's going to get laid off next.

Is it illegal? Probably. Are they going to get away with it? Probably.

Everyone should remember that big tech companies aren't your friend.

When working conditions are getting worse and people are being fired, that’s when you need a union more than ever.

At this point, I’m hoping for there to be a spree of unionization.

Maybe a millennium from now we’ll have better means of keeping corporations in check, but in our species’ current and primitive state, unionization might be one of our only options.

It didnt work though

These things are measured in decades.

Imagine where they'll be 5 years later if they do nothing

In the fable of the and and the grasshopper the grasshopper needed food stored up more than ever when the winter came, but the time to be preparing for winter was the spring, summer, and fall when you plant, tend, and harvest. By the time winter comes it's too late.

The best time for someone with a variable rate mortgage to refinance as fixed rate would have been 2020. You didn't need a fixed rate back then because variable rate was in some cases less than 1%, but you need one now because mortgages are around 7%. If you refinance now it won't help.

The time to unionize was when labor had power by being in demand. 2020 would have been a good time, but maybe even the mid 2010s.

There’s a Chinese proverb that goes like this: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

We can’t go back in time to plant the union tree. But we can do it TODAY. Doing it late is better than never doing it at all.

Planting a tree isn't going to war (and unionizing is in a sense mobilizing for a war). Both you and the seed want the tree to grow. If you go to war and the time is not right, then you will be wiped out and history will be written by the victors.

We just bought a house and went with a 5 year ARM instead of 30 year fixed to get a 5.5% rate. Sure hoping that rates go down a little in the next 5 years so we can refinance and lock in at a decent fixed rate. Rolling the dice... : (

My condolences. It's a very tough time to be stuck with a mortgage.

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Layoff protection was listed in the article as one of their reasons for unionizing. Being able to better negotiate severance, the right to be rehired, etc. The auto industry has layoffs, but unionized workers get recalled when jobs pick back up.

Yeah, and a lot of people want to refinance their variable rate mortgage at 3% fixed.

It's too late for that.

Sun Tzu says that the wise general wants to attack where the enemy is weak and avoid where the enemy is strong. Waiting until the layoffs to get protection against layoffs and not expecting to just get laid off is the epitome of attacking the enemy where it is strong, and not unionizing when the company is on a hiring spree is the epitome of not attacking the enemy when it is weak.

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