Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/19/kickstarter-united.html
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I wish them great success!
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They should have a Kickstarter for the initial filing and startup costs.
Or, if they can’t for legal reasons they should start a GoFundMe page,
the Go Fund Me people should fund their unionization efforts on IndeGoGo
and the IndeGoGo staff should start a Kickstarter to fund their initial unionization efforts.
[Edit, added] I’d like to hear if there was much resistance to the idea, as it seems in line with the values KickStarter projects. I have no idea what the internal culture truly is like.
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You forgot Patreon.
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This is how we make the crowd funding singularity happen.
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It’s hell to earn a living on a VDT
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Off topic, I couldn’t quite catch all the words, and turned to the closed captions. They are a bit nonsensical/funny. (Are most cc a little “off”? I don’t usually use them.)
I was hoping this would happen! I wish them all the luck in the world.
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The youtube closed captions are machine generated and strange. Here’s a link to the actual lyrics http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Tom_Juravich:VDT
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Thank you!
I realized after I posted that, that to me the closed captions were mostly humorous—but for anyone who has to rely on them to know what the song is about, probably not so.
I don’t know if crowd funding efforts are really a new tactic, outside solidarity and funding during strikes have existed for decades.
Maybe some variation on the pop-up union would work.
http://www.solfed.org.uk/brighton/the-pop-up-union-a-postmortem
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Kickstarter’s senior staff have apparently decided to go with the counter-argument that white people forming a union is Problematic.
Forming a union is a great tool—for marginalized workers. Unions are historically intended to protect vulnerable members of society, and we feel the demographics of this union undermine this important function. We’re concerned with the misappropriation of unions for use by privileged workers, some of whom receive compensation more than twice the average income in NYC, in addition to flexible work from home hours, above-and-beyond industry standards for parental leave, 25+ days of paid vacation, a wellness stipend, a bike stipend, an education stipend, a weekly catered lunch, and a great deal of other benefits. We’re already a radically thoughtful and ethical company with our PBC, and can do more to lead the way in the tech industry by providing an open environment that’s free of hostility.
Meanwhile if you want to get a sense of just how deep Vulture Capitalism has its hooks in the Valley, consider that a company which has been profitable for 9 years, has zero debt, and is not danger of running out of money (their own spokeperson’s words) is worried that a union will jeopardize their ability to get another round of VC funding.
“Our company is looking for funding to secure our financials, as we’ve heard in multiple All Hands communications. If we add a union into the mix, it could make it near impossible for Kickstarter to raise a round.”
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Just coming here to post about that.
As someone else succinctly put it:
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And don’t fall for the “well, the letter/memo wasn’t written by the bosses”. Even if the letter-writers aren’t, where do you think that they first heard/learned that unions aren’t necessary? Silicon Valley is terrified of unions. They are the exact kind of exploitative employers that unions rose up in response to. So their entire culture was founded on anti-unionism and fake progressive policies to cover their “treat people like our machines” reality. It’s the guilded age all over again – we did not learn from history, so now it’s on repeat.
ETA:
Don’t ever assume that your employer has your best interests in mind, unless your employer is you. Even then, you might want to take a close, honest look.
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