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> No, the article from the NWU talks about how organized workers successfully
> had a regulation passed by the legislature and signed by the governor to
> ensure a benefit for a class of workers. Certainly a miracle given that the
> NWU didn't have to give large campaign contributions to anyone involved.
Actually, if you read what the NWU did, they basically are helping to kill the
tech writer contract market in California. Because they successfully lobbied to
get writers included in overtime provisions (where engineers, programmers, etc.
are not) many larger companies are just going to kill off hiring tech writers on
contract now. Alternatively, they will outsource the jobs en masse to companies
and then not have to even worry about overtime pay. They pay one flat rate to the
tech writing firm.
This is synonymous with the contractor rulings about 5 years ago at Microsoft.
Where people used to work for years on high-paying contracts, because some union
members felt unloved, they successfully sued and managed to kill the entire
contracting industry. Now people who were sitting on 3 and 4 year contracts at
great rates had to be laid off at the 12 month mark so as not to violate some new
law. This put a lot of people out of work.
So in a sense, this legislation, hurts their own members more than it helps them.
Now the business will go to tech writing consulting firms and out of state.
And I am not speaking here from something I read off a web site. I've run a
business for 8+ years. And I can tell you that its downright impossible sometimes
to make money if you follow all the insane laws out there.
> I don't think the NWU wants to crush all the recruiters, just the ones that
> don't follow the law.
>
> As to driving every last profit making company out of California, the
> companies themselves are doing that in a lot of ways. I'm sure we can all
> relate the boneheaded things that companies do to make sure that the
> quarterly report shows a profit.
Yes, companies do a lot of boneheaded things to hurt profitability. And
apparently one of the newest boneheaded things will be hiring contract writers in
California.
Andrew Plato
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