this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2026
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Tech Workers Have Long Resisted Unions. Will AI and Politics Change the Equation? | KQED (www.kqed.org)
submitted 6 hours ago by chobeat@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[โ€“] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 22 points 6 hours ago (4 children)

It would be nice.

Most of my complaints about unions are:

  • Seniority is a terrible system to build a foundation from. It just is. I don't give a fuck who got there first, seniority systems grow complacency, punish competence, and lower labour mobility. I was in a union as a teenager, the company offered lump sum payments for the older union members to literally sell out the younger ones with delayed wage increases, and they all voted for it since it was harming someone else.
  • There are many unions that are just greedy pigs. You pay dues in, the union gets fat, but they spend all their time defending the wrong people.
  • Unions can add a lot of extra process to things that don't require it

However, that does not mean we shouldn't have unions. We should maybe try to improve how we do them, so they work better for everyone.

I just want a union that looks out for unfair labour practices, forced unpaid overtime, keeps the company competitive on salary and benefits, and is willing to fight for workers who are unduly fired or sidelined.

[โ€“] prounion@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago

My main problem with this line of thinking is that you and your co-workers are your union.

Unions are just like the government. The more that you tell yourself it's someone else's problem to figure out, the less you will actually be represented by it.

Yeah whatever people work a lot, nobody wants to be responsible for their own power, etc.

But you get the union that you fight to build and the contract that you vote to accept.

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