A Group of Workers at Bandcamp Just Voted to Unionize (bandcampunited.org) 23
Bandcamp is music streaming platform helping fans support independent musicians. And Bandcamp United describes itself as "a union of workers at Bandcamp — we are project managers, we are engineers, we are designers, we are vinyl campaign managers, we are support staff, we are editors and writers..."
Friday Bandcamp United issued this statement: Today, a majority of eligible Bandcamp workers voted 31-7 in favor of forming Bandcamp United, a union represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). The vote results now await certification by the National Labor Relations Board, with a collective bargaining process to follow.
Below is a joint statement from Bandcamp co-founder Ethan Diamond and Bandcamp United:
â "Bandcamp United and Bandcamp management are committed to working together to continue to advance fair economic conditions for our workers and the artists who rely on us. We look forward to negotiating with an open mind and working in good faith to promote the best interests of all of our staff and the artist and label community we serve."
Friday Bandcamp United issued this statement: Today, a majority of eligible Bandcamp workers voted 31-7 in favor of forming Bandcamp United, a union represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). The vote results now await certification by the National Labor Relations Board, with a collective bargaining process to follow.
Below is a joint statement from Bandcamp co-founder Ethan Diamond and Bandcamp United:
â "Bandcamp United and Bandcamp management are committed to working together to continue to advance fair economic conditions for our workers and the artists who rely on us. We look forward to negotiating with an open mind and working in good faith to promote the best interests of all of our staff and the artist and label community we serve."
While it's nice to see (Score:3, Insightful)
The goal of any large business is always to divide and conquer. You need to keep your workers separate so that they're not using collective bargaining power to get higher wages. You control all the capital but that's basically worthless without somebody to run it all. The way you get people to do that for slave labor wages is by keeping them separate as individual units. That way you can leverage your money and everything that you own to make them do as you say.
Basically you can't go toe to toe with somebody that's got over a billion dollars to their name when you're lucky to have 30k in your bank account. They can just fire you and wait your savings out for a few months. You'll be bankrupt long before them.
Re:While it's nice to see (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem with the modern push for unions is that workers are too spread out now. You don't have 30,000 guys at one factory anymore. That's by design. Early on when the unions were forming in America one of the major things the corporations won was that unionization would be done on a per work site basis.
Nothing prevents those unions to be coordinated nationwide; in fact communication technology makes it easier than ever. What prevented unions to be effective in the US was the mentality, maintained by capitalism propaganda, that you could make it big by playing by the rules and being a ruthless isolated individual. Now that this propaganda is no longer credible, workers are rediscovering the need for unions.
Basically you can't go toe to toe with somebody that's got over a billion dollars to their name when you're lucky to have 30k in your bank account. They can just fire you and wait your savings out for a few months. You'll be bankrupt long before them.
Aaaand, that's precisely why unions were created to begin with, when workers couldn't save and could not afford to go without a month's salary. Thanks to the union's fees, they had a remnant to support them for the duration of the strike; possibly sustained by the solidarity of other unions.
It seems that the US is due to figure out again how workers can organise to fight for better conditions when the rules governing industry do not provide enough to sustain them.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. What happened is that during the pandemic, workers realized the truth. It's why "quiet quitting" became a thing - instead of workers willingly "giving it their all" and working crazy overtime, suddenly people realized the truth.
Working really hard gets you nowhere. Your boss appreciates that you put in 40 hours of unpaid overtime last week. But that appreciation only goes towards "can you do it again this week?" It makes him look good and gets him the bonus, while you get scraps.
There less willingn
Re: (Score:2)
People suddenly understood. You work crazy hours because your boss promises you that promotion, or that raise, or whatever else works to motivate you "to do more". But people realized, no, they're going to promote the guy they always wanted to promote. That big raise is never coming - "budget cuts" or "we didn't do well this year", or some other excuse - there will ALWAYS be an excuse on why you didn't get the promotion. There will ALWAYS be an excuse on why you didn't get a raise. There will ALWAYS be an excuse on why you didn't get this that or other thing offered to you.
Hence, quiet quitting. And not so subtly, return to office.
People realizing the truth, means they aren't going to put in extra effort - why should I put in 40 hours of overtime, unpaid? You can dangle promotions, raises, an office, but the truth be told, that's never coming to me, because you will always have an excuse.
I'm afraid your still thinking within the frame of capitalism propaganda. My point was that, even if you are the one who gets the promotion, overall that's still a bad deal for you.
There's where you're wrong (Score:2)
The trouble you're having is you're thinking is very two-dimensional and straightforward. That's because you haven't spent decades perfecting the art of union busting and you don't
Re: (Score:1)
Unions are nothing but collusion in the labor market. The same people LIKE YOU who are pro union are always crying about needing stronger anti-trust laws etc. Rules for thee not for me hypocrital crap.
Unions have NO place in a free market. Anyone who is in an Union and not trying to move toward right to work is a sack of shit. Anyone who votes to unionize is as well.
Never donate to union members gate keep whenever possible, kick them out of your clubs, don't invite them to good parties etc. They are paras
Re: (Score:2)
What US needs is collective agreements like we have in Finland. You don't setup an union at some company. Instead, once some union has more than 50% of workers as members in some business type, like steel manufacturing, they can collectively bargain and the agreement they sign affects everybody, companies that were part of the bargaining, companies that didn't take part but are doing business at the sector, and all employees, both union and non-union members. And in this system the companies themselves have
Good Luck to them! (Score:2)
Re:Good Luck to them! (Score:4, Interesting)
Honestly, most claims of unions NOT understanding business and economics is propaganda from people who were hoping to eat the whole pie themselves and leave the union workers to do the dishes.
Re: (Score:1)
Spoken like someone who doesn't follow labor issues. The rest of us know what happened in Detroit. Truth is, most hirings and firings take place because the overall business is doing well or isn't isn't doing well. Its a nice idea that people get hired and fired due to their own skill and hard work but that just isn't true. And it sucks that something none of us have any real control over can disrupt our lives so much. But for the most part, we are all impacted by things that we have no control over (t
Re: (Score:2)
Pensions don't bankrupt agencies or corporations. Raiding the pension fund and not getting around to repaying it is the back breaker. Every time. Layoffs are often done not because of lean times but so the executives can give the stock a bump before they sell.
One exception is the USPS where the GOP wanted to trash it so they demanded that all pensions be pre-funded on the day a new employee is hired, before their eligibility for pension even vests.
For every inflexible union rule, you'll find a management at
Re: (Score:2)
Pensions don't bankrupt agencies or corporations.
But they do bankrupt governments. Ignoring the negative consequences of a policy doesn't make them go away. It just makes you a poor excuse for a human being who ignores what they do to others because they only really care about themselves. This is you.
Re: (Score:2)
Only when they raid the pension fund.
This one time, at Bandcamp... (Score:2)
you know the rest
Re: (Score:2)
you know the rest
If only Alyson Hannigan had a /. account and submitted this ... #MissedOpportunity
High Profile within the Music Industry (Score:2)
It'll be interesting to see how this goes. Bandcamp is a tiny company and this is a few people forming a local union. But in the music industry, they've got a relatively high profile lately with their "Bandcamp Fridays" making waves during the pandemic as the company gave over their share of proceeds to artists as a sign of goodwill. These millions of dollars made Bandcamp among the best earners for artists, and a "good guy" in many fan's eyes.
So people are paying attention to Bandcamp, and ideally it will
Good for them (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Shocking!
One time at bandcamp (Score:2)
Nevermind