manager's job

   Technology unions are new labor organizations that full-time and contract

 

employees at major tech companies are attempting to form or have

 

successfully formed. These unions fight for traditional issues like wages and

 

working conditions, but also engage in a new type of activism around the

 

morality of the companies' operating practices. Tech unions are new labor

 

organizations that are trying to form at major tech companies. These unions

 

fight for traditional issues like wages and working conditions. They also

 

engage in a new type of activism around the morality of their employers'

 

business practices. Tech unions are looking to disrupt the status quo.

​

   The union was organized in secret for a year before the announcement. It

 

has more than 800 members, including full-time employees, temps, vendors,

 

and contractors. The union recently filed an Unfair Labor Practice complaint

 

on behalf of a contractor suspended for discussing pay with her coworkers.

 

Alphabet is the highest profile tech firm to have its own union. The union, the

 

Alphabet Workers Union sprung out of a larger campaign by the

 

Communications Workers of America (CWA). CWA is an affiliated union of the

 

AFLCIO.

​

   The union was focused on more traditional union issues such as wages,

 

hours and working conditions. Membership in traditional unions focused on

 

these issues has been declining for decades. Alphabet Workers Union was

 

created to fight unfair company practices, says Parul Sethi, co-founder of the

 

union. Google employee, Timnit Gebru claims she was fired for refusing to

 

withdraw a research paper on how speech technology could help

 

marginalized groups.

​

   Being able to lobby both for traditional employment issues and value-based

 

issues could create wide appeal for tech unions. But the pandemic could

 

make it hard to be effective on either front. The AFL-CIO sees the broader

 

unionization effort as just getting started. Digital workers  could attract broad,

 

diverse support from digital workers and physical labor alike. Political

 

pressure could also have an impact on unionization efforts at big tech

 

companies. The AFL-CIO's Technology Institute aims to help the labor

 

movement address the future of work and tackle issues created by new

 

technology. Tech unionization efforts are moving fast, planning as they go,

 

and are unafraid to break things.

 

​

Work Cited

Kugler, Logan. “The Unionization of Technology Companies: New Unions Could Change How Tech Giants Engage with Their Employees.” Communications of the ACM, vol. 64, no. 8, Aug. 2021, pp. 18–20. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1145/3469285.