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Comment by p_monk | Hacker News Reader

For those people suggesting programmers shouldn't unionize, read the op-ed in Financial Times written by Sequoia's Michael Moritz this week to see why programmers should unionize ASAP:

https://www.ft.com/content/42daca9e-facc-11e7-9bfc-052cbba03...

In this article, he suggests Silicon Valley engineers should be worked to the bone like their Chinese counterparts. Some of the things he suggests in the articles:

1) End vacation days (he refers to taking a vacation day as "stealing")

2) Workers should get used to not seeing their kids

3) End the weekend (employees should work 14 hour days, 6-7 days a week)

4) Buildings should turn off the heat. Instead, employees can wear coats and scarves at their desks.

5) Physical fitness should be discouraged.

View on HN

And yet here we are today in Silicon Valley with lavish perks, much higher than average pay in the country for software development, and no unions.

We also have the ability to fire untalented or unpleasant people, and promote especially talented individuals regardless of age or tenure.

You don't need to work at any company that looks like the above. And I don't know of any company that looks like the above.

I'm sure there was an assembly line in '70s Detroit with this same conversation.

What's your argument here? Every assembly line worker in 70s Detroit was unionized.

The "here we are today, look how good we have it" narrative is complacent and dangerous. Eventually you will be disrupted.

And the point is unions didn't help to counter it.

Why make the assumption that unions of the future need to be identical to the unions of the past? Do self-driving cars need to resemble classic hot rods?

Except none of these are happening in SV, and I can't imagine them happening in the foreseeable future.

So programmers across the country should unionize because one guy has an opinion?

"Some guy"

Moritz is one of the most esteemed partners at the most prestigious VC firm in the world. He's a multi-billionaire with immense power. He's not "some guy."

"has an opinion"

He wrote an op-ed in the most widely read international business journal. This isn't an opinion, it's a rallying cry.

Please, don't pile on the mentally ill. The symptoms of Parkinsons include: amnesia, confusion in the evening hours, dementia, or difficulty thinking and understanding, which may explain his absolutely ludicrous article in FT

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