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Comment by cool_dude85 | Hacker News Reader

So you want someone who can tell you what the yet-to-be-negotiated contract with your employer will look like? Maybe you should be looking to join up with the Mage's Guild, I understand that their magic can see the future very clearly.

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I don't need to see a negotiated contract. I need to see a list of grievances the union wants to negotiate for. So far everything I have ever wanted but not had from an employer I was able to find by switching employers. What is something concrete that would make my life better that I can only get by joining a union?

Really spitballing, but one that comes to mind is eliminate forced private arbitration? I haven't been able to avoid that one by switching employers.

Google got rid of forced arbitration recently without unions.

> without unions.

Conveniently omitting the 20k strong walkout. That's organizing.

I hadn't heard that it was for all cases, kudos to Google. But of course that is just one example among many.

Not omitting anything. Organizing is what discontinued the DoD contracts and several other unsavory problems in recent years. That's entirely my point: employees already have the power to effect change for important issues without involving all of the problems that plague official unions like teachers' unions and police unions.

Google is actively involved in DoD contracts.

https://fcw.com/articles/2020/05/20/google-cloud-diu-william...

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/thousands-contracts-h...

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/cia-awards-cloud-comp... (Not DoD, but the US IC)

I don't see what adding a body that allows you to vote on what get's done involves all of those problems.

Unions are structured in a way determined by the workers who are voting, there is no inevitable path for a union to take. A teacher union is very different from an actor's union, for instance, even if they are covered by the same basic laws.

FYI: AWU is a no-contract (minority/solidarity/members) union. Their strategy for the foreseeable future will be pursuing precisely what you are describing here (organizing workers for walk-outs, without locking in a CBA).

Yes, if they're willing to continue letting their organizers be fired afterwards for "unrelated reasons". As-is organizing each walkout has to start from scratch since the previous leadership structure no longer exists.

This has allowed the management to make promises to address concerns and fail to follow through on them. Or have HR take over employee-organized community groups discussing grievances and slowly let them die.

>So you want someone who can tell you what the yet-to-be-negotiated contract with your employer will look like?

In broad strokes, yes.

Here's an analogy: I know it's not implemented yet, but I want the design doc and market research, not just the elevator pitch.

This is usually communicated in the course of organizing - you don't win union elections by not communicating what you stand for/what would be pushed for in a new contract.

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