[P2P-F] Unions for Immaterial Production?

[Michel Bauwens]

Dear Richard,

Very interesting, thanks a lot for this contribution.

I'd like to ask you a favour, we have a little directory of free software
coops here, see http://p2pfoundation.net/Free_Software_Cooperatives, could
you add your entity and eventually others that you know?

Also, perhaps with Mark Dilley, Walton and Orsan, who like you are active at
the intersection between unions/labour and open/p2p/free-software practices,
I wonder if we could not have some kind of publishable dialogue, in which
these issues here are trashed out for publication?

I am personally very happy with what I see as a maturation of the link
between labour and p2p practices,

Michel

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 1:32 AM, Richard Schulte <
richard at flywheelcollective.com> wrote:

> Patrick,
>
> As a member of a unionized worker co-op who deals exclusively with software
> in the free & open source realm, I have not encountered many issues with the
> impact of unionization on projects we are involved in.
>
> If anything, unionization in the open source realm could be helpful.  Say,
> if the workers of Sun Microsystems were unionized, could they not have
> resisted the buy-out by Oracle through a strike?
>
> You make a good  point though - that developers in the greater community
> could act as 'scabs' in these situations.  The thing is - as long as they
> aren't being paid by the company that the workers are striking against, then
> there is no issue, and they are not scabs.  If anything, they could be seen
> as acting in solidarity with the striking programmers by ensuring that their
> software is still stable once they get back on the clock.  Or they could
> assist them by forking the project and continuing development outside of the
> control of the company (like the document foundation did). The free and open
> source community is built around mutual aid, trust and solidarity (for the
> most part).
>
> The reason I make such a big point of union organization in the open source
> software and hardware communities is that when starting new ventures that
> are worker-owned, that these folks can build economies of scale around
> collective benefits, group purchasing, training & shared services.  Having a
> union that is greater than your own shop is important when filing grievances
> and having a wider reach of agency and community.  When these institutions
> are worker-owned, and part of an appropriate economic ecosystem, the balance
> of power tends to shift away from moneyed interest and towards federation.
>  This means that there will generally be less likelihood of strikes and work
> stoppage.
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Richard
>
>
> On 02/25/2011 12:39 PM, Patrick Anderson wrote:
>
>> The effectiveness of collective bargaining has always been threatened
>> by independent peers who are willing to accept lower wages and endure
>> poor working conditions.
>>
>> For traditional manufacturing jobs, these 'alternate' workers can
>> usually be kept from accessing the Means of Production by forming a
>> physical barrier around the worksite or through various threats that
>> can be carried out because it is easy to monitor who is actually
>> entering the establishment.
>>
>> Yet these valuable techniques of intimidation and coercion so vital to
>> protecting Worker Rights are unlikely to be applicable in the realm of
>> "immaterial production".
>>
>> When it comes to something like Free Software, how can we, the
>> International Programmers of the World, unionize effectively to *stop*
>> independent programmers from creating the solutions that consumers
>> need?
>>
>> This is a catastrophic issue, as many of these independents are
>> willing to work not just for a low Wage, but for Free!  They often fix
>> bugs and add features without any pay at all!
>>
>> How can workers in the 'immaterial' sphere possibly "make a living"
>> with such anarchy and disrespect for organized labor, and with no
>> ability to stop that production?
>>
>
>


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