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Comment by pb7 | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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