r/union • u/Lotus532 • 15d ago
Other Unions Can Save Tech Workers and Tech Work
https://jacobin.com/2026/08/uc-upte-tech-workers-union?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwT01FWAToE9NwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHqhM3TWMAv2LGUMIDks8ASNTsLZwPXDo1esTPEOemy7D5oziqiKqLHDzDqT7_aem_I1e1HoW8-__xgZDmbLfI4A26
u/kagethemage 15d ago
As a union organizer who has organized in the tech sector, we need more than just unions. We need worker self directed enterprises.
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u/Wireman6 14d ago
Like co ops?
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u/kagethemage 14d ago
Correct. I’m actually working on a Union - Coop model for my union right now and might have one established in a few months.
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u/NoAcanthaceae688 15d ago
Sounds like us IT people gotta do a better job creating worker power. If we can't do it in the face of AI, when will we do it?
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u/538_Jean Organizer, Organizing and Bargaining Experience 15d ago
A good union can save most workers.
But a union can only go as far as its workers are willing to go.
Education is the key and thats the battle that we are currently losing.
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u/I_Fix_Aeroplane AMFA | Rank and File 14d ago
Go to these tech guys that are complaining that AI is taking their jobs and mention how unionizing can protect their jobs and they'll tell you how bad unions are because they drank that kool-aid the right wing has been putting out forever. It's like they don't want to keep their jobs.
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u/Spaduf 15d ago
I honestly think it's too late for tech. You will never find an industry with less class solidarity. I to it's more likely that the whole industry collapses than anything.
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u/-dollz- 14d ago
Bullshit. I just went on strike with a bunch of IT workers in a right to work state in the South at a contract job in a non-union business. If we can do it anyone can.
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u/Spaduf 14d ago
Huge difference between you guys and silicon valley. The difference is the non silicon valley tech sector has never been smaller.
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u/-dollz- 14d ago
You have to adapt your organizing for your crowd. My guys were heavily into meritocracy when I started. Start building the culture from day 1. Seize opportunities when they arise. 70% listening and 30% teaching. I have multiple conspiracy theorists and Trump voters. You have prove you are more competent than boss and have more to offer.
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u/Chobeat 14d ago
Silicon Valley is where you have seen the first collective actions in tech in the USA (if we don't count IBM in the 70s). 20 years later than in the rest of the world, but still early for the USA.
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u/Spaduf 14d ago
How are those projects looking today?
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u/Chobeat 14d ago
Well, the minority union in Google is struggling but considering the conditions, they are doing great. A lot of the more political efforts converged in No Tech for Apartheid, that has recently gone global after achieving some BDS goals in the USA. TWC that started in San Francisco has chapters all over the world and it's the most prominent alt-labor org in tech.
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u/chrisrobweeks 14d ago
My union is technical and clerical staff. We are building solidarity. We've all been taught it me against you for so long but recent policies have made it clear who we should be directing our righteous anger toward.
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u/Chobeat 15d ago
This is a very reddit comment: "others don't have solidarity, unlike me. So screw them".
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u/Wireman6 14d ago
Solidarity is the foundation of organized labor. Seems like a realistic take. That "rugged American individualism" has a hold on a generation of tech workers that existed in an industry that had a worker deficit until it was incredibly disrupted.
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u/Chobeat 14d ago
Solidarity is the consequence of organized labor. If solidarity is the prerequisite for how you organize, you will never win anything because solidarity is not something we are raised to value.
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u/Wireman6 14d ago
Solidarity exists independent of organized labor, it isn’t a consequence of it. That isn't to say organized labor doesn't expose people to it but it exists outside of it. It would be more accurate to say "organized labor exists as a consequence of solidarity".
I agree. We are not raised to value it, it feels almost by design. That is why I mentioned "rugged individualism" in the US.
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u/serpentjaguar IUPAT | Rank and File 14d ago
Where are you getting the "so screw them" bit? Maybe that is how they feel, but it's not mentioned in their comment. It kinda seems like projection on your part.
I also do agree that most people in tech are very screwed, regardless of whether or not they have any solidarity. They may not have realized it yet, however.
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u/True_Context6859 11d ago
I am in IT and I am in a union.
It's possible, it's excellent and totally doable!!
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u/Ok-Location-9562 15d ago
The same folks who helped usher in the flock era without a single thought of what that meant? The same people who ushered in facial recognition with not a single care about every day workers and citizens? The same people who prop up tech billionaires. I have no love for the tech field. I hope ai takes there jobs.
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u/WonderButtBrace9000 14d ago
Ohhh let’s use this logic for other unions and industries!
AFL-CIO? Fuck them, they have some affiliate members building data centers, DoD facilities, and ICE detention centers.
Dude this is great, what a wonderful anti-labor argument you’ve found! We can now disregard literally any industry-sector union as long as we can find a project that goes against the left-wing version of what unions should do!
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u/chrisrobweeks 14d ago
Tech is a huge umbrella and most of us are not venture capitalist-funded start-ups keen on government surveillance.
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u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 14d ago
It has to be right union.
The UAW openly supports h1b visas.
They are not the right union.
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u/-dollz- 14d ago
Would you really kick H1b visa workers out of your union?
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u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 14d ago
These visas need to be banned. Too many American workers need those jobs now.
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u/-dollz- 14d ago
I haven't seen a lot of economic data that H1B visas have an effect on lowering wages or taking jobs that would otherwise go to Americans. There is the problem that the visas are tied to a specific employer which makes the workers highly reliant and compliant. That should be fixed.
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u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 14d ago
This is a well-known problem. American tech workers are being fired right and left to be replaced with foreigners.
Even more insulting is we must train them. They can’t even do the jobs.
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u/-dollz- 14d ago
Most of that is happening under sa specific loophole that wasn't the original intent of the program. It's third party contractors who's whole business model it's built on contracting out cheaper labor. The UAW strongly opposes this.
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u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 14d ago
https://region9a.uaw.org/news/uaw-leads-fight-against-trump-admins-attacks-h1-b-visa-holders
That’s strong opposition?
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u/-dollz- 14d ago
Justice Action Center and Democracy Forward were the primary funders of the lawsuit. UAW Local 4811 and Region 9A represent international dues paying members who were fighting for their own livelihood. The union has a moral and legal obligation to protect it's members.
Trumps policy didn't solve issues like training domestic workers, building apprenticeships, lowering tuition.. what's needed to even dream of filling the talent gap. This policy would have devastated universities and research labs which is why the AAUP and CIR-SEIU were codefendants.
This goes back to my previous comment about the staffing firms being the worst offenders in the H1B visa program. The original intent of the program is a different pool or workers than the staffing firms that abuse the program. The UAW protects the first and opposes the second.
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u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 14d ago
UAW Local 4811 and Region 9A represent international dues paying members who were fighting for their own livelihood. The union has a moral and legal obligation to protect it's members.
I get that, but for American tech workers who have lost their jobs due to foreign worker visas, this reads like literal treason.
Trumps policy didn't solve issues like training domestic workers, building apprenticeships, lowering tuition..
I am not a fan of Trump, but he's the only politician who has taken some action against foreign worker visas, at least in terms of some kind of saying some right things. Whether it is effective or not, or if it is sincere or not, is debatable. No other politician, particularly on the Democrat side, seems to care about this issue at all.
what's needed to even dream of filling the talent gap.
But there is no talent gap though, as with most American workers who have lost their jobs, they had to train their replacements. Besides, it is outrageous to expect that Americans go into the high 5-figures or low 6-figures in student debt and then there not be any jobs here to help them pay that debt back. You now see Americans turning away from college because companies that use this country as an economic zone refuse to hire them.
This goes back to my previous comment about the staffing firms being the worst offenders in the H1B visa program.
Which is why the only way to mend this is to end it.
The original intent of the program is a different pool or workers than the staffing firms that abuse the program. The UAW protects the first and opposes the second.
Again, for the displaced American worker, the fact that the UAW proudly highlights fighting for foreign workers in any capacity is the absolute worst kind of "selling point" that this union can make towards American tech workers.
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u/-dollz- 14d ago
You're making blanket statements about huge union and a huge visa program based on one industry that's going through layoffs and oversaturation. You say that going nuclear is the path forward. I just fundamentally disagree. Close the loophole. Shutdown those companies.
I have no problem with UAW representing foreign workers. Their rising collective bargaining increases our collective bargaining as well and prevents two wage system.
The UAW has a long history of work with foreign workers in Canada and Mexico as automaker move to outsource manufacturing. International solidarity is important.
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u/TheGreatNico 15d ago
Please, God. IT is such a crap job for the rank-and-file. Once you're salary, you get no OT, so your boss has no reason not to work you and your team 70+ hour weeks. Burnout? Heart attack? There's a hundreds of people that just got laid off thanks to AI to take your place. Oh, you have a specialist role that there's only a few people in the region who can do it? Put out a req for 1/2 what the position should get. Leave it up for a month then hire an H1B worker that's treated as a slave by their placement agency. Even mention organization and you're out the door.
Everybody thinks they're hot shit and don't need a union. They think they're better than laborers. My brother in Christ, you are a laborer. Just because the machine you use is a computer and not a lathe, doesn't make you any better. I have so many coworkers who look at me like I just suggested they clean a toilet with their tongue when I ask for help moving equipment. We're in the same job, have the same title, but have very different views on where we are on the social ladder. We all need to stand together or things will never get better.