Members of SAG-AFTRA have voted in favor of authorizing a strike for video game performers. This doesn't mean they're going on strike right now, but it does mean union negotiators have the option to call for one if they feel it necessary after negotiations resume tomorrow.
Why aren’t trade unions more prolific in the tech sector? Techies are the most left-leaning demographic I know of and yet there are no powerful programmers’ unions or something that are able to stand up against billion-dollar corporations.
Perhaps it’s time to add a mouse to the classic hammer and sickle…?
There’s a lot of union busting and general misinformation about unions out there. Some people don’t even know what they do or where to begin. I think that contributes to it.
Back when I played Deus Ex: HR, I overheard a NPC say that he got fired from his job for being in an Union. I wonder if this is one of the general misinfos surrounding unions, that “you’ll get fired if you join a union”.
Deus Ex: HR deartment
From my experience trying to organize tech workers, the biggest factor is that tech workers feel like they’re highly compensated compared to other workers, and they don’t think they deserve more than them. They haven’t internalized that it’s actually us vs the shareholders. (And you see plenty of this from the outside too; people blaming tech workers for gentrification instead of blaming the landlords that actually raise rent.)
I’d also guess that a lot of it is because tech came into prominence after union participation had already fallen off.
On top of that, politically active tech workers are most often either leftists who feel like what you said, or libertarians who believe in meritocracy
We actually have a few unions for tech where I live, but they are run by pmc:s and don’t really have to do anything since employers are willing to pay above the unions’ recommended salaries, so they mostly just sit on their asses and slightly raise the recommendations every few years and don’t bother with any kind of solidary actions for other unions. I won’t join any of them until they are willing to strike for someone else’s benefit (or I’ll just strike illegally, fuck pmc)
Solidarity strikes are illegal in the US and UK. Which is absolutely bullshit.
Those that live by the free market should die by the free market.
Shame. You can always get more with a union. The capitalists at the top won’t settle for a billion dollars if they think they can get two, so why should you settle for a hundred thousand when the union could get you more?