gets A new Chapter in the history of digital Economy: The crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, the trade Union representation.

The Kickstarter group has trade Union representation photo: OPEIU

ball pit and table football voted yesterday. The promises of the digital world of work, dominated by Start-ups of Silicon Valley, promised a new culture of work. Flat hierarchies, fun, creativity, freely negotiable salaries. What wanted to look like an individual Overcoming of the capitalist antagonism between capital and labour, is now arrived in the reality of classic exploitation. Even with large players like Google or Facebook, a multi-class society is created. On the one hand, highly doped, with shares and bonuses-appointed Manager, and on the other the wage-dependent Employees and outsourced digital Sweatshops.

reports on programmers who have to live in California, in their cars, as their salaries are insufficient for local living, show an Extremely, point to a fundamental Problem. As in any factory shall also apply in the digital area, that profit is only achieved if the work force is exploited successfully. And how on the Assembly line also applies here: The balance of interests between those who must sell their labour power, and those who draw a Profit from it, just works better, if the workers organize.

To this realization, the majority of the employees of the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter now and therefore voted last week for their Union representation. In the digital Economy that is so far extremely rare, and therefore absolutely remarkable.

Kickstarter operates from the Silicon Valley. The seat in New York was long regarded as a Statement of a certain distance to the Californian ideology, the libertarian Anything-goes-attitude – anything goes, except for trade unions. The first Attempts of trade Union Organisation in the past year were suppressed in the case of Kickstarter, and terminations of two employees including.

to have, Among other things, the following Protest a prominent supporter of the platform seems to have helped. On working conditions and also the operational side of the business Kickstarter needs to negotiate with the community, acting jointly, staff, like I used to. It wasn't all just bad.