Why isn't the tech sector called out for the lack of unions?

[Matty]

Many of the big tech companies have profit margins more than 5 times what the profit margins are of fast food and walmarts. It seems like it is an industry ripe for unionism to fight for some of those profits in the form of higher wages and more benefits. These foreign workers come to california and are paid 60k, not a high way at all in coastal areas of the state, and that's that.

I think it turns off many on the left when you see party bigwigs buddy up with some of these tech guys.

Jon Ossof said in his speech that he wants atlanta to be the silicon valley of the south. But silicon valley, with its high profit margins and lowish wages and lack of unions to prevent those profits, seems anti-thesis to traditional democratic ideals./

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Why would a neoliberal pro Wall Street party care about any of this?

[pbrower2a]

The tech sector farms out its machine-paced assembly work to places with ultra-cheap labor and an absence of strong unions.  The engineers and technicians are generally treated well, and real difference in contributions get paid for. A machine of course can establish what productivity one does -- or else.

People with machine-paced jobs, as on assembly lines, are exactly the sorts of people who can best benefit from collective bargaining. Engineers generally have much autonomy, and it shows in their pay.

[publicunofficial]

They are? The left wing blogosphere hates Uber, Facebook, ect.

[ApatheticAustrian]

aren't most employers in that sector earning good wages and getting extras which other workers could only dream about?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

aren't most employers in that sector earning good wages and getting extras which other workers could only dream about?

Some have terrible work conditions.

http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html?page=17

[JA]

Jacobin Magazine just had a good interview article about this very issue.

But also,

Why would a neoliberal pro Wall Street party care about any of this?

[dead0man]

Techies are smart enough to know it's stupid to give even more useless middlemen part of their pay.

[pbrower2a]

They are? The left wing blogosphere hates Uber, Facebook, ect.

Uber isn't high-tech; it's a cab service that uses computer-based technology. Facebook isn't any more high-tech than I am just for using a computer and the Internet.

Heck, Wal*Mart is a huge user of information technology and a seller of much of what passes as high technology to its clientele. Does that make Wal*Mart high-tech? It's still in the retail business.

[muon2]

They are? The left wing blogosphere hates Uber, Facebook, ect.

Uber isn't high-tech; it's a cab service that uses computer-based technology. Facebook isn't any more high-tech than I am just for using a computer and the Internet.

Heck, Wal*Mart is a huge user of information technology and a seller of much of what passes as high technology to its clientele. Does that make Wal*Mart high-tech? It's still in the retail business.

I disagree about your assessment of Facebook. It is hugely high tech. There's the obvious investment in servers and network technology. Perhaps more important is their heavy investment in data science to manage information and target users with additional information beyond their initial request. I've been able to work with some of their staff on information security issues. They don't just use other firms' analytics, they actively develop their own, and that makes them a tech company more than WalMart.

[Beet]

Congresswoman Olivia Santos from district 14 is fully transparent, so you can find out for yourself.

[publicunofficial]

If Zuckerberg runs for President I hope it has an effect of more of the left realizing Silcon Valley is not their friend.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Maybe if the tech giants were Republican then you would see more outrage from the left, but the tech giants give boatloads of money to dems, so the last thing the dems and most libs want is to anger them.

If Zuckerberg runs for President I hope it has an effect of more of the left realizing Silcon Valley is not their friend.

     I think these posts are both on point. The tech sector does a lot for Democrats, so they will opt to turn a blind eye and not look too deeply into the abuses rife within the sector. This has produced an unjustifiably romantic view of tech in many cases, even as it hurts some of the people the Democrats are supposed to be fighting for. It's a lot like how many Republicans have been slow to anger over the evident lack of "family values" with Roger Ailes and others in FOX News.

[publicunofficial]

Another answer to this question is that Democratic leadership stopped caring about unions in general in the 90's.

[heatcharger]

Because it's a non-issue.



Find me the groups within the tech sector that would greatly benefit from the advent of unionization. The fact of the matter is that there's little incentive for white-collar workers to take up collective bargaining.