It seems, historically, that once workers gain rights in times of crisis, they aren't keen on giving them back. For example, in Rwanda it used to be taboo for women to work, but once the Rwandan genocide happened they were forced to let women work because of an absence of capable men. 26 years later and it's the country with the highest percentage of women in the workplace. Once people are forced to see how nice things are a certain way they don't usually want to go back.
I think we might actually see labor tensions around this issue. All the big companies seem to be adopting WFH, but the ones who aren’t are going to run the risk of conflict and unrest.
There was a lot of talk when Kickstarter unionized about how tech employees don’t need similar protection relative to the dangers workers faced during the first mass waves of unionization. I think that calculus might change in cases where workers are forced to expose themselves and their families to a pandemic because their bosses value butt-in-seats over employee safety.
Agreed. I'm very aligned with that talk - I was and remain skeptical that a union would be good for me - but if my bosses don't start recommending WFH within a few days I'm going to be pretty frustrated.
Unions can have their downsides, but they’re also one of the few ways that workers can fight back against dangerous workplaces and expose those conditions to the public.
This is happening right now with the nurses’ union in California, who are exposing the CDC’s stonewalling and failure in testing for COVID-19 and the danger this is posing to everyone:
I got a message recently from the (public sector) union I belong to, talking about response and precautions due to the epidemic, and there was not one word about trying to get permission for employees who can work from home to do so. They only talked about those who are required to deal with the public.
While it certainly seems reasonable to prioritize those at the most risk, on the other hand, in my brief experience with a union, it almost seems like they tend to prioritize problems they can't solve and ignore what can actually be done.
Laptops are standard-issue in my agency, so it seems like if the person at the top ordered it, essentially everybody could work remotely for the next month or two.
