We’re living in an age of fear and uncertainty with layoffs happening weekly. AI is often being cited, whether it is the real reason or not. Tech work is being devalued despite the reality that tech companies ability to get anything done if labor were to stop, strike, organize and speak up about what happens with their role in the future would prevent the business from getting work done. Workers have a lot more power than they realize. The management class is intoxicated with greed and power. ICs and rank and file workers are what makes the business happen.
This is already looking to be one of the largest wealth distribution periods in history to the 0.1%. And yet, we are all seem to not be putting up a fight. I’ve heard people say “unions won’t work”, what would work then. Let’s discuss. How do we as tech workers want this to play out. What would the ideal future look like to us, not CEOs?
The shape of what the resistance could be a strike, a union, something else entirely. If there is already something brewing, I want to join and take an active role. If there is not, then let’s get some smart people together to figure out how best to organize. I understand we put AI back into a bottle. But, surely there is some collective action to take to allow workers have some basic protections and reap some of the benefits of AI efficiency.
Prospect is my union (although I'm a member of a BECTU branch rather than the Tech Workers branch as I work in the broadcasting industry) and it's well worth the dues I pay.
Tech workers have thought of themselves as the geniuses, the exceptions, not as part of the general labor pool. And they have been! They have received very high salaries, good benefits, sometimes stock options. There have been a lot of tech workers who have become millionaires - not 50%, but enough that it felt like they had a realistic chance to do so.
It's really hard to persuade people like that that they need a union. Unions are for people who can't take care of themselves, who need a union to protect them from big evil management. Tech workers don't see themselves that way.
Also, unions often have bureaucracy of their own. Tech people generally hate bureaucracy. Having the company's version is bad enough; adding a second one on top is a really hard sell.
So you have a really big headwind for trying to persuade your target members that they should want such a thing.
But you have an opening now, with AI and concerns for jobs. People may be more open to the idea than they historically have been. The problem is, the people that you need to get, the ones who are deciding to implement AI, are typically the ones who still think they're the special ones, the ones who will always have jobs, so they still won't see the need, not for themselves. You have an opening with some people, but I'm not sure it's enough for you to be able to make real change.