Brainstorm HN: Unions are dying - can technology help?

It seems to me that the massive economic and social dislocations brought on by technology are mainly hurting the middle classes of the world. In one industry after another, the fact that companies can recruit workers in other countries to do a given job for less has completely taken away the bargaining power of workers - the result is massive income growth among the rich and stagnation or decline for the rest of us.

It seems to me that technology could be used to even up the score. What I have in mind is some kind of unionization platform, in which workers from any industry can organize and bargain collectively.

I think initially the platform would have to focus on a very skilled group of workers whose wages are roughly comparable worldwide. I'm thinking VFX artists or computer programmers.

The idea would be that when you register your dues are collected automatically. In order to prevent picket line crossing, it might even make sense to have your paycheck paid via the union itself. All accounting would have to be fully transparent, of course - but I think that would be one of the advantages of doing it all online.

I'd love to hear from people on this - it's come up several times for me and I'm wondering if there's a there there.