At my work just all me and my fellow techs in a meeting we basically expressed shared frustration at wages not increasing at all in last couple years despite the company making billions.
It appears we were all individually expressing this and it boiled over cause nothing was being done.
So are there any organizations collecting signatures or potential members with the goal of forming one later?
At a glance, the Teamsters and IWW might have some resources for tech worker unions.
I think, if you wanted to push for a union in your workplace, someone who actually works there would have to lead the charge with signature collection etc.
Yes, it has to be some one actively employed (and not management,) to get it going.
That said, an established union can help and is the way to go.
One thing I always wondered is what counts as “management”?
For example I’m in manufacturing (not looking to start a union, my job treats me fairly well but I support them) and we have “team leads” who technically “manage” people but are very low on the totem pole.
We have supervisors who are higher, about the same as engineers, who “manage” the leads.
The we have directors and managers who basically run their whole group.
The it goes up to vps and divisional vps and eventually CEO and board of directors.
Where does “management” start? Really below vps/dvps everyone is just following orders. They may be following orders but with much more lead way. I can see a case that anyone who “manages” another person, even at a team lead level" could be counted as management and that just doesn’t seem fair.
it depends on your organization. Generally speaking way to know is… can they fire or have underlings fired or disciplined in any way? if so, they’re “management” but again, that depends entirely on your organization.
My two cents is I’d say you’re a ‘manager’ if you have the power to hire people, fire them, discipline them, and determine their pay and working conditions.
Generally a “team lead” is just a more senior individual contributor that can help guide other individual contributors. Management may listen more heavily to their opinions on the matters above but they don’t have any direct control over it past advisory. Sometimes they may perform some light managerial functions like work allocations but they have no direct power to back that up.