
Ask HN: Why don't software devs have a robo-union? - hardwaresofton
It seems like the most inefficient&#x2F;undesirable (almost inevitably bound to become corrupt) part of unions always happens to be the management -- seems like we could totally sidestep this with a robo-union?<p>Collecting &amp; voting on proposals, and handling as much of running the union through distributed means would maybe make for happier and probably more productive union members.
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PaulHoule
It's an interesting question.

My complaint about union leaders today (speaking as someone who has actually
been to most of the union halls in town for one reason or another) is that
they have a hard time expanding their model to other groups.

For instance the UAW did a gangbusters job organizing janitors at Cornell.
Later on they tried to organize graduate students and that was a complete
flop.

In the case of grad students the biggest benefit they talked up was health
care for dependents. Well, when I was a grad student I had no dependents.
Hypothetically it seemed like a good idea (I knew many foreign grad students
with kids), but I wasn't going to stand out in the rain to organize a union
for that. As a grad student my issues revolved around the fact that I was
being trained for a job that didn't exist, something the U.A.W. wasn't
addressing.

I think direct democracy is out of fashion these days ever since the brits
made an own goal that way.

