FC: Unions are another casualty of dot com deaths

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-8437119.html

   Unions a casualty of dot-com shakeout
   By Alorie Gilbert
   Staff Writer, CNET News.com
   January 11, 2002, 4:00 a.m. PT
   
   Alan Barclay is glad he took on Amazon.com, even though he lost. 
   
   The former customer service representative had been trying for months
   to sign up workers for a union when he and his 400 colleagues got an
   e-mail from management: Gather your personal belongings and meet in 20
   minutes for an announcement.
   
   Barclay knew it was over.

   When Amazon announced, as he expected, that it was shutting down the
   Seattle service center as part of widespread cuts last January, it
   also killed one of the few nascent efforts to unionize tech workers.
   Other closely watched efforts that died in 2001 included those at
   online grocer Webvan and online electronics reviewer Etown.com, both
   of which ended when the companies went out of business.
   
   The same labor leaders who hailed those efforts in the beginning
   stages have now mostly given up on trying to organize tech workers,
   even though employees face far more daunting conditions in the current
   recession and would ostensibly be more open to organizing.

   [...]



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