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Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

I think that this comment is downplaying the power of labor organization and mocking it in a way that is anti-worker and pro-corporation.

Maybe this is not a big walkout, maybe it won’t lead to change, but I don’t see the merit in mocking it.

We all actually have incredible power over our employers once we get beyond the extremely difficult part that involves organizing and fighting professional anti-organization efforts that corporations employ (along with sympathizers like this that make organizers look like wimpy losers on their lunch break).

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If it doesn’t lead to change, what is the purpose?

I am sympathetic to their goals, but pragmatically, if a particular action doesn’t get you closer to your goals, why do it? It’s just performance art if it doesn’t have any tangible effect.

Every organization of every type starts small. They don’t all become large.

We could say the same thing about every failed startup company that was a peer to Amazon in the 90s, I guess they were all just performance art corporations.

Why even bother getting up in the morning, right?

I’m just not a big believer in doing things that don’t work. Even large scale protests rarely achieve meaningful results. Labor walkouts, Occupy Wall Street, BLM, COVID protesters and the truckers, Just Stop Oil, PETA theatrics, the weekly marches on Washington for this cause and that cause: have any of them actually changed anything?

When it comes to how companies operate, only shareholders get to vote. I don’t like it, but that’s how it is. Convince shareholders, and they’ll motivate management/leadership. When it comes to government policy changes, convince voters and they will elect people who might implement that change.

Protesting and picketing is “doing nothing, loudly.”

I would expect shareholders to start caring if labour appears organized enough to threaten continued operations of the company.

The biggest issue with modern activism is that it acts like peaceful vocal protest is the end of the line when really it's in the middle of a wide spectrum of options. If the people making the decisions don't care about you there is no construct of words that will have any effect on their behavior. If a sociopath is beating his wife or robbing his neighbor, debate club persuasion is not the tool for the job.

Labor walkouts have changed the lives of millions of people in the 20th century. You have grown spoiled living in the 21st century, and have completely discounted the contributions of generations before you.

It’s always a solid point when you’re like “100 years ago this stuff mattered!”

"Doing nothing" can have quite an impact on a company's bottom line. A walkout like this may be a precursor to a vote to unionize, which may be a precursor to a strike action, which may lead to collective bargaining that results in better working conditions. Doing nothing can accomplish something, and has done for centuries.

You can't write a news story about a bunch of people doing nothing, can you?

Someone already explained the purpose in one single sentence in this thread. It demonstrates to owners and other workers that some workers are organizing and willing to use their aggregate power.

If the action doesn't lead to change, then all you have demonstrated is that workers organizing is ineffective and not something which the company should fear. Its the owners that the aggregate power is far less than they may have feared.

I think it cheapens the term “walkout” if they’re not actually walking out on anything. They’re not withholding labor or participation in anything.

They would have to take vacation hours if they wanted to withhold labor.

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