This makes me wonder if there would be a way to decentralize unions to make them easier to organize. Something like the "Uber of Unionization" or a social network for labor. People could pay very low yearly dues to keep the platform running or just ask for contributions like wikipedia.
I'm almost sure something like this already exists, but I haven't heard of it before.
I was thinking something that would make the union pipeline go a little smoother. You would have a social network so that verified employees at a company can talk to one another without fear of retribution that could match them up with representatives of other unions or provide help in creating their own. Maybe have anonymized income sharing and comparisons to other union/non-union shops.
Pretty much democratizing the information networks that employers are already using to exert power over workers. A counter to the wage setting schemes and various databases that employers have already created.
I think something like this would need to be attached to something that is fun or solves an immediate need. Nobody is going to sign up for the "Wobbly App" to organize their workplace for fun, but if Microsoft died tomorrow and left LinkedIn to the IWW in its will, I can imagine that they would find lots of ways to turn that into organizing muscle. A more realistic scenario is some kind of labor-backed nonprofit coming out with a platform that includes labor organizing features, but whose users mainly see it as another kind of service and only tangentially about building worker power.
I don't know what that would be though: dating app? tax software? payment app? If the service was truly popular, how difficult would it be for the initial backers to keep control (see OpenAI)? Would capital and the state torpedo this thing as soon as it saw its first success, or co-opt it to their ends?
Probably it would just start off as a non-profit work social media thing like Nextdoor for employers instead of neighborhoods. (Hopefully with a lot less racist BS) Or a Glassdoor with a focus more on labor organization. A place for people to complain about bad scheduling or share rumors or news without corporate monitoring. Definitely encrypted and invite only.
Right now, most workplaces are panopticons and employees don't get much chance to gather and discuss. Some places are even monitoring phone communications through apps on employee phones. We could even bring in employment attorneys as a benefit of the service to answer questions about the law and provide a secure way to journal workplace harassment.
You already see stuff like this on Reddit, but they are rife with bad actors.
Capitalize: Take the chance to gain advantage from.
What advantage could I take from a non-profit method of labor organization? How would this replace existing unions? In fact, I'm betting existing unions would get the most benefit from this.
How would that be decentralized by definition? Swedish labor unions are not tied to specific employers, but they are usually a member of LO, the main union of unions, which I would consider centralized.
It would be decentralized in the fact that any group could create their own union without permission from anyone else. Then they could go about joining an established union or forming one of their own once they have enough people to vote for one. However they would still be able to engage in collective action to some extent.
The application wouldn't just be one large union, but thousands of small ones around the world that can talk to each other.
I'm almost sure something like this already exists, but I haven't heard of it before.