| One of technology's most respected chroniclers thinks we're headed for a wave of unionization in tech. I think he's onto something.
I had Walt Mossberg, formerly of Recode and the Wall Street Journal, on my Fortt Knox digital show this week. One of the topics we tackled together: the class system developing within the tech world. Silicon Valley increasingly relies on contractors for everything from marketing to coding work. Rather than hire people outright, companies bring in workers from staffing firms.
The New York Times wrote about that dynamic this week, outlining how the contractor workforce goes without the same benefits and pay that full-time workers get. When thousands of Google employees staged a walkout in late 2018, the company's response addressed only full-time workers. Contractors, who make up more than half of Google's workforce, were left out.
The tech workforce wasn't always like this. When I moved to Silicon Valley 20 years ago, the popular promise was different: Go work for a tiny startup, even as a secretary, and collect stock options. Become a millionaire when said startup goes public. Buy a sports car and a $500,000 house in Cupertino.
Twenty years later, the deal has changed considerably. From what I hear, a greater share of equity in startups is going to founders vs. rank-and-file employees. Fewer startups are going public, and when they do, fewer secretaries are getting rich – because they're more likely to be contractors. And good luck finding a home for less than $1 million in Cupertino; the median sale price is just shy of $2 million.
That dynamic is, in part, what has Mossberg predicting a wave of unionization in the digital era.
"I think what they are asking for by doing this in Silicon Valley, they're going to get unionization," he said. "I don't think it will be easy, I don't think it will be immediate. But I think it will be sooner than people had thought, which was really never."
For my part, I think he's right … to a point. While Silicon Valley is tightening the screws on its workforce, it's also creating platforms that make it easier than ever to get around organized labor. From Uber to WeWork, it's easier than ever to make workers and workplaces fungible. Whether that's a good thing depends whether you're writing paychecks, or depositing them.
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Until next week, |
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