Sometimes it's not all about money. People in the bay area may not understand that most people working at Kickstarter truly believe in the company's mission. The money is not great and we've been willing to accept that to feel like we're making a positive change in the world. Unfortunately upper management has used this (as well as Kickstarter's reputation) as a bargaining chip to treat employees poorly.

Source: I work at Kickstarter

For those who are curious this union drive was really started by extreme incompetence from upper management. The former CEO hired ineffective status-seekers (including the current CEO) into many positions of power which created a super toxic environment. Accountability for internal problems has been extremely low. The "Always Punch Nazis" controversy was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

People in the bay area may not understand that most people working at Kickstarter truly believe in the company's mission. The money is not great and we've been willing to accept that to feel like we're making a positive change in the world. Unfortunately upper management has used this (as well as Kickstarter's reputation) as a bargaining chip to treat employees poorly.

Source: I work at Kickstarter

But didn't the same management also decided to make the company a PBC instead of becoming billionaires by going public? That always felt to me like a signal that the management believed the mission too.

> extreme incompetence from upper management.

I don’t think that any unionisation has ever came about due to the management being competent and treating their workers well.

> Treat employees like real people you care about and avoid turning the C-level suite into a force of secrecy, discrimination, and exclusion.

This was the main driver for unionization. Outrageous incompetence from upper management.

Source: I work at Kickstarter

> In tech, we can generally assume reasonable working conditions and pay, so Kickstarter unionizing screams “toxic management” for me, personally.

I can confirm that "toxic management" is the only way to describe the situation when this union drive began.

Source: I work at Kickstarter

Is the article's description of why the union was created accurate?

Yes it's accurate, though the "Always Punch Nazis" controversy was just the tip of the iceberg. Employees were being treated like enemies by some in upper management.

Edit: I've been rate limited by HN mods (thanks!), so not replying on this account anymore. All the best!

New accounts are rate limited by software. I've marked your account to exempt it from this now.

The article is ambiguous, but I guess those organising the union were taking the side of leaving the project up? Or is the union demanding total freedom of speech in the terms of service? I'm guessing not.

Doesn't that bother you, at least a little bit? How can whether or not to leave up "always punch nazis" be the union's signature issue? Unions are meant to fight for the common man against the elites.

alwayspunchnazis.com has a cartoon of the US President being punched in the face at the top of it, and every article on that website calls the Republicans Nazis. Given how many ordinary working class Americans voted for Trump, painting them all as Nazis and then insisting that such a fundraise remains live would seem to be the opposite of what unions historically stood for.

>The Nazis won a plurality of the popular vote, so it’s not exactly a great distinguishing factor for Trump.

The distinguishing factor is that Trump's admin doesn't actually resemble a Nazi regime.

I was only responding to a particular point in the parent comment.

>Yes it's accurate, though the "Always Punch Nazis" controversy was just the tip of the iceberg

Wow pretty crazy that a company would expect employees to consistently enforce a reasonable part of the company's T.O.S.

Many tech workers have no idea how unbelievably spoiled they are.