Workers Accuse Kickstarter of Union-Busting In Federal Complaint (vice.com) 44
On Monday night, unionizing employees at Kickstarter filed a complaint with the National Labor Review Board (NLRB) for allegedly wrongfully terminating two employees. Both of the employees were on the Kickstarter United organizing campaign. Motherboard reports: Kickstarter told Motherboard that the workers, Clarissa Redwine and Taylor Moore, were fired over performance issues within the past two weeks. But employees at Kickstarter are accusing the company of "discharging employees" because "they joined or supported a labor organization and in order to discourage union activities," according to the NLRB complaint, which was first reported and obtained by Slate's April Glaser. A third employee and member of the Kickstarter United organizing committee, Travis Brace, was informed on Thursday that he would no longer be needed in his role.
In a September 12 email obtained by Motherboard, Aziz Hasan, the CEO of Kickstarter, wrote to employees, "There have been allegations that we are retaliating against union organizing. Those allegations are not true. No Kickstarter employee has been or ever will be fired for union organizing." Redwine says the company complained to her in recent months that she was not satisfactorily working with her managers. She claims that she was not given specific guidance on how she could improve. "Suddenly, after becoming a public union organizer, I started to get very strong negative feedback," Redwine told Motherboard. "After my best quarter at the company, I was told I was being put on a Performance Improvement Plan for slippery reasons like not building trust with my managers. I asked how progress would be tracked over and over and only received answers akin to 'just trust us.' I assume they never crafted the Performance Improvement Plan because they couldn't come up with anything concrete for me to improve." Redwine and Moore are asking for back pay and to be reinstated to their positions. In response to the complaint, Kickstarter said: "We'll be providing the NLRB with information about these firings and supporting documentation."
Kickstarter told Motherboard that it "recently terminated two employees for performance reasons. A third was working on a service we shut down, so his role was eliminated, and there were no other positions here that would be a strong fit. That staff member will be transitioning out of the company. All three of these employees were members of the organizing committee, but this has nothing to do with their departures. (We have fired three other people who were not organizers since March.)"
"We expect all employees -- including union organizers -- to be able to perform in their role and set up their teams and colleagues for success. We use a range of approaches -- twice-a-year performance reviews, peer feedback, manager feedback, one-on-one coaching and, in some cases, mediation -- to ensure that employees have the support they need to meet those expectations. When someone has been through this process and we have sufficient evidence that they are not meeting expectations, we must unfortunately part ways with them," the company continued.
In a September 12 email obtained by Motherboard, Aziz Hasan, the CEO of Kickstarter, wrote to employees, "There have been allegations that we are retaliating against union organizing. Those allegations are not true. No Kickstarter employee has been or ever will be fired for union organizing." Redwine says the company complained to her in recent months that she was not satisfactorily working with her managers. She claims that she was not given specific guidance on how she could improve. "Suddenly, after becoming a public union organizer, I started to get very strong negative feedback," Redwine told Motherboard. "After my best quarter at the company, I was told I was being put on a Performance Improvement Plan for slippery reasons like not building trust with my managers. I asked how progress would be tracked over and over and only received answers akin to 'just trust us.' I assume they never crafted the Performance Improvement Plan because they couldn't come up with anything concrete for me to improve." Redwine and Moore are asking for back pay and to be reinstated to their positions. In response to the complaint, Kickstarter said: "We'll be providing the NLRB with information about these firings and supporting documentation."
Kickstarter told Motherboard that it "recently terminated two employees for performance reasons. A third was working on a service we shut down, so his role was eliminated, and there were no other positions here that would be a strong fit. That staff member will be transitioning out of the company. All three of these employees were members of the organizing committee, but this has nothing to do with their departures. (We have fired three other people who were not organizers since March.)"
"We expect all employees -- including union organizers -- to be able to perform in their role and set up their teams and colleagues for success. We use a range of approaches -- twice-a-year performance reviews, peer feedback, manager feedback, one-on-one coaching and, in some cases, mediation -- to ensure that employees have the support they need to meet those expectations. When someone has been through this process and we have sufficient evidence that they are not meeting expectations, we must unfortunately part ways with them," the company continued.
Re:Screw unions (Score:5, Insightful)
Unions are monopolies — or wanna-be monopolies
A union is a monopoly in only some states. In most, employees can't be compelled or coerced to join.
But the company is a monopsony, so a union can provide a counter balance.
Either way, there are laws that must be followed. If Kickstarter has documentation of poor performance reviews, and logs of counseling and coaching, then they will be fine. If the union organizers were fired out-of-the-blue, then they may have problems.
The NLRB currently has 3 Republicans, 1 Democrat, and 1 vacant seat, so they will lean pro-corp and anti-union.
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Whether that's true or not, it cannot be different for restaurateurs and carpenters — either folks in the same profession are free to collude with colleagues to keep their prices up, or they aren't.
And the prevailing opinion is that they aren't — our anti-trust laws are over century old.
That they aren't applied equally to all sellers is the outrage I'm arguing against...
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You would rather close your business than negotiate with your employees collectively?
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That seems incredibly situationally dependent.
Seems unlikely they would convince the entire workforce to "join", and even if they did the boss can say "I only negotiate individually and not with groups. If you strike or do anything to negatively affect the performance of this company I will fire you. Outside of that, go have fun with your union." You are out of luck.
Do you think everyone who JUST JOINED this union will risk their jobs? There won't be money to pay them to go without work for months like the
Re: Screw unions (Score:1)
Re: Screw unions (Score:1)
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"A union is a monopoly in only some states. In most, employees can't be compelled or coerced to join."
I joined the state of washington as an employee and was told this was a union shop and I had to join. I remember my first job at a grocery store at 16 and I was forced to join the union. Again, when I was a baker I had to join that union. Only place I didn't have to join a union? Tech company where there was none.
Yes, you have to join the union. You have no choice, or you don't work there.
Re: Screw unions (Score:1)
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Unions are evil, horrific organizations. They gave us the weekend, vacation time, health benefits (well, we are losing that one), reatirements, and many other things.
If you don't like unions, I'd recommend looking at joining a place that brags about being a 996 shop, just to show that you don't need unions telling you how long your work week should be, If China is doing that, well, better hop in it and do 72 hours a week. Oh, you like 40 hours? Stop bashing unions who got you that.
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And your personal experience is all that matters. If it didn't happen to you, it's never happened to anyone.
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I agree. I'd add that discussion of pay and benefits ignore the huge union dues. I won't join a union again, and if my staff decide to unionize I'll shut down and go do something else. I have confidence in myself. I don't have confidence in unions.
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Re: Screw unions (Score:2)
Damn straight! Fuck those uppity proles, demanding things like human dignity and a fair share of the product of their own labor! Subhuman deplorables all of them!
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Well done, you've just proved the main point of the article.
KS going to lose this battle (Score:2)
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She claims that she was not given specific guidance on how she could improve
This is happening in the industry at such precedence that it is amazing it is allowed. Today if you are not "playing with the team" they simply let you fall. Of course the severance is usually well pampered, which puts the zipper on everyone's mouth. The fact that she has a platform to make this aware may tip the legal scales in corporations that do not provide distinct goals and metrics that show failure to improve. $100 this will be settled out of court.
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Is this an " at will" [wikipedia.org] state as far as work rules is concerned?
If that's the case, I'm guessing they can let them go for most any reason, or no reason, as long as it isn't a racial or sexual thing.
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This is just a complaint to the NLRB, not a wrongful termination lawsuit. It likely won't cost them anything
They are certainly going to have to pay lawyers to respond to the complaint. Saying it's "just a complaint" doesn't do justice to how bad the NLRB can fuck with a business if they choose to be dicks about it. But, as you implied, if the employer has good documentation the interaction with the NLRB can be pretty painless. (I've had to respond to complaints before as well. Luckily I had good enough documentation.)
I was a suit at Mobil Oil ... (Score:2)
... and management framed is as "putting someone on objectives."
That was the dog whistle to update your resume. It's hard to defend against, "We just lost confidence in the person."
Um... who are they going to complain to? (Score:2)
Every branch of Government except the House is in the hands of people openly hostile to Unions. And even the House leans anti-Union. I guess it doesn't hurt to file, and maybe it's the first step to a lawsuit. Good luck guys.
Also, I won't be supporting stuff on Kickstarter again, not until they make this right. If I want to give money to a project I'll either find another way or go without. And I'll let the creators know, for what it's worth. My $$$ are ab
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Most of the employees in any agency are what they call "career professionals." They don't change between administrations.
Meh. (Score:1, Troll)
Unions? OSHA took care of 99% of that long ago. What's left is wages, and that should be left to the free market - they're not paying enough? Leave, you have that choice.
Re:Meh. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unions? OSHA took care of 99% of that long ago
Quite right. There is no way employers will claw back any of the conditions the unions fought for.
Nobody ever has to work overtime without being paid, and everyone's health coverage is great and just getting better.
Now tell me how great you've got things, and how everybody else should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, or whatever talking points Fox News is spewing out now.
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solidarity (Score:2)
Join the Software Workers Union.
When we stop working, the internet stops working.
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Good luck with that. They'll just replace you with Habib and Mohammed for a fraction of the cost.
Re:solidarity (Score:4, Funny)
When we stop working, the internet stops working.
Good luck with that. They'll just replace you with Habib and Mohammed for a fraction of the cost.
. . . and the internet still stops working.
Re: solidarity (Score:2)
That's a moot threat. Wherever possible they _already have_ replaced us.
Anti-Union bias (Score:2)
Anti-Union bias can be seen on slashdot every time the topic comes up. It can been seen in this thread.
What kickstarter might be true, it might be false. It would not surprise if kickstarter the corporation did it, but equally it would not surprise me if their manager did it.
The story as presented actually puts the manager in the frame for me, particularly ' like not building trust with my managers'. Makes me suspect these people were managed out rather than as part of corporate strategy.