No matter how hard you work, some nepo-baby loser with an MBA that thinks they know better will cut your career short at Cisco (or anywhere). Now is the time to organize carefully, quietly, and in large numbers. We can make a better Cisco
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Or you could take off the Klingon outfit, move out of your parents' basement and get a real job.
After reading the same posts year after year after year after year it's time to say enough. Cisco has had bad leadership and bad quality for decades including the time before layoffs when people were making millions off the stock. A union isn't going to make any of you do your jobs better so the company can become stable.
And no, Cisco was never going to own the cloud.
@OP+1r5ekh1V - stop wasting oxygen and leave already.
Sorry to say that a union wouldn’t have stopped this layoff. Look at the uaw (or any other large union) and the history of layoffs in that industry. It doesn’t stop them, so don’t pretend otherwise.
@ekm+1r5ekh1V if this doesn't concern you feel free to move on.
Cisco has completely shutdown profitable groups because they no longer aligned with the corporate strategy and vision. They've also cut off funding for profitable product lines to squeeze out additional margins this quarter/year at the expense of future growth. (Then ki-l the product line because there wasn't enough growth). If it was a small group it would just be shutdown or outsourced immediately.
There are enough existing unions that employee of Cisco can join those, rather than creating a new one from scratch. The tech union is for the industry so role doesn’t matter.
It does require coordination by employees still in the company to do this. So someone or group has to be brave enough to start contacting others.
Cisco divide and conquers. Employee need to band together.
Stop wasting your time on this.
@wga+1r5ekh1V this is why vigilance and awareness is extremely important. There are a number of books, tools and tutorials how this can be achieved.
And hundreds of examples in history that unionisation was actually achieved. And in much worse professional conditions that we have today!
@zph+1r5ekh1V a small group essentially doing the same work form a union within a large organization, but once the company learns of it they'll use tactics, perhaps questionable under NLRB guidelines, to disrupt the any activity
A union's structure depends on the goals and interests of its members and that can be shaped organically.
The most difficult and critical point is to start!
With so many product managers and architects creating a union structure should be a child's play do us! Let's not overcomplicate things!
What's critical mass for a company with 80000+ employees? Would you need a sales union, and a marketing union, and a software engineering union, and a hw engineering union, and a tech writers union, and a product support union, ...
How to start a union:
Step 1: Talk to your colleagues quietly.
Step 2: Establish common struggles and possible solutions
Step 3: Establish lines of communication and be vigilant.
Step 4: Reach out to a local trade union and ask for support and further instructions.
Most important of all is to Talk!!!
To get critical mass in terms of Cisco each country need an enough employees to sign up to a union. They can then push back, negotiate .etc
Cisco play is to isolate as many individuals during a lay off vs having a large organised group that can have more influence. The we-pon of last resort to a union is a strike that ultimately affects the revenue of a company and why a noticeable amount of employee are needed.
Unions are variable by country and local labor laws. That said there are several now established in most countries.
Following example goes into one
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-times-tech-workers-strike-over-return-to-office-rules-bloomberg-news-2023-10-30/#:~:text=The%20New%20York%20Times%20issued,the%20U.S.%20with%20bargaining%20rights.
The targets get bigger
The resources get scarcer
The budgets for pride, black history, Latin history get higher
It's all about caring for people right ?
At the mercy of the non stop pivot
How would one go about doing that? It's easy to say in anger and frustration but hard to do. Or get employees represented on the board? Or take all the shares I own and bundle them with other workers stock for a proxy vote representative of employees?
Also I have 2 opposing views of unions. One is I can't move my desk lamp without calling the electrical union so a 30 second job takes 3 days. No thanks.
The other is more akin the various guilds in Hollywood like the writers guild. I don't have a strong opinion on this. I do think something needs to be done though.
Absolutely. Everyone says that tech jobs are well paying and have good benefits so historically they haven’t been unionized, but if mass layoffs keep happening then neither of those matter.