Tech Workers Can Still Fight Silicon Valley’s Overlords

If only tech workers weren't allergic to unions that'd be great

It's like the entire white collar industry. I think they think it's beneath them, and they think they will be special.
- Eh.. having unions sounds good to me.. a white collar worker. I am just not considered part of the labour class by blue collar workers. So it makes me feel isolated. Don't be mistaken, we keyboard thumpers already fight corporate bullshit daily. Th e disdain is from blue collar workers.
  
  . I am just not considered part of the labour class by blue collar workers.
  
  Unions can and still lead you to resources and help you unionize. You can't blame blue collar workers.
  
  I didn't blame blue collar workers. I said I was isolated because even though both white collar and blue collar workers sell their labour for a living, somehow we are never accepted as real labour just because the elite among us make $500k a year for instance.
  
  I mean you're still the working class. But a desk job is quite literally not labour. Labour is physical work, specifically lol
  
  I think it's time for you to be introduced to the concept of "cognitive work". We have been doing that for a few thousand years now.
  
  So you, without a tiny bit of irony, would say you sitting at your desk is a labour job?
  
  when tech folk get milked by every other merchant and pay extra, while getting ripped off.. we do feel like daily wage workers.
  
  Labour is physical work but working your eyes and brain is also taxing. It's just a different set of muscles/organs. Sitting at the desk all day is also taxing. it's just not evident enough to people who see an AC and think that's comfortable. It's not healthy long term. Leads to all sorts of health issues.
  
  Many of us tech workers joke that we will make our bag of money, retire, and go do farming. But you must understand why we joke like that.
  
  For a lack of physical activity, desk workers suffer numerous health issues due to sitting all day/lack of movement. We are deprived of natural sunlight and wind in our badly lit offices staring at bright screens.
  
  My point is that I said i felt isolated by blue collar workers not considering tech workers as the same class. You just went ahead and proved my point.
  
  this is one of the reasons you don't see class solidarity from tech workers. The blue collar bunch think we are somehow same as the capitalist class.
  
  Edit:
  
  I also think the definition of labourer is not as myopic as you make it out to be. If one sells their time/works for money then they are labourers. Only those who make their money/capital/resources work for them cannot be considered labourer. Even a manager is a labourer. I would exclude CEOs because they invest and are also board members in their buddies' companies. Their employ is just a facade to maintain control and keep the power "within the family" so to speak.
  
  My point is that I said i felt isolated by blue collar workers not considering tech workers as the same class.
  
  Labor isn't a class difference.
  
  desk workers suffer numerous health issues due to sitting all day/lack of movement.
  
  Blue collar workers get significantly decreased life spans compared to white collar, because we breath in fumes and strain our bodies. That's not the point you want to stand on for them being the same.
  
  maybe try to win over people instead of assuming we don't know how tough it is out there as a blue collar worker? I didn't say your life was a walk in the park. I said we as tech workers are still breaking our health for capitalist profits which we don't see much of. Why do you think I chose an office job? My father was an assembly line worker making automotive starter motors. He came home and slept is all i remember from his working days. You think you should feel proud of someone going away from backbreaking work or do you think less of them because they decided to make their lives a little bit easier?
  
  I don't have a problem with your job being easier. My issue is you white collar workers sitting in your air conditioned rooms and diminishing the difference in body damage and quality of life between white collar and blue collar.
  
  You're not breaking your health. You can just exercise outside of work to stop most of the issues. We don't get that luxury, which is why it stings when you try to say the damage is equivalent.
  
  labor
  
  1 of 3
  
  noun
  
  la·bor ˈlā-bər
  
  plural labors
  
  expenditure of physical or mental effort especially when difficult or compulsory was sentenced to six months at hard labor
  
  the services performed by workers for wages as distinguished from those rendered by entrepreneurs for profits
  
  human activity that provides the goods or services in an economy Industry needs labor for production.
- My company will fire anyone who talks about unionizing. And with Republicans destroying the Labor protections once afforded by the government, that's a really risky move to make.
If people stopped repeating this stuff, it would help
- Lol, no, it wouldn't.
  
  I organize tech workers. The expectation that they are going to fight an uphill battle inhibits a lot of them and often it's not the scenario they are faced with. Tech workers being skeptical of the possibility of unionizing their workplace is a mind virus that needs to be eradicated for anything to happen. If then they find hostility, there are endless means to win over their colleagues, but if you discourage them before even starting, nothing will ever change.
  
  Lol, no, it wouldn't.
Well it is starting over in the gaming industry. Hopefully it can snowball.

https://generalstrikeus.com/

we all ARE striking daily. We're fighting bullshit RTO mandates and quiet quitting everyday

Hahahahaha. You think that's what a strike is? A strike isn't just a slight battle against the company. It's an all out war. So to speak. It's insulting to those actually in unions who walk the picket lines to suggest refusing rto is a strike.

Please actually organize.
- you should try to get off of your imaginary high horse or you might hurt yourself.
  
  A strike is a refusal to commit labour to the company. Same as not doing a good job. In japan the ticket checkers had a strike where they did their job as usual but did not collect the payment for issuing tickets. THAT was considered a strike.
  
  why must quiet quitting not be considered too? We don't participate in whatever greedy venture by doing the bare minimum.
  
  Because when they did that, it was actively less than the bare minimum. If you do the bare minimum, you're still doing your job. Hence, not a strike.
  
  You also aren't organized, which is another good reason to not call it a strike. A strike isn't a few workers doing how they feel like.
  
  In America, when you strike you put up a picket line. You tell the company, this is what we want, and will do nothing for you until you meet our demands. And you do it together.
  
  As long as you are getting paid, you can hardly call it a strike
  
  If you still get paid for a job not well done.. it's still hurts the company. Believe me, there has been an attack on tech workers by the industry. Firing people during record profits, using LLMs to upset the negotiating power of artists and software people alike, not giving inflation adjusted pay hikes, etc. You can even see the billionaire owned media grind their gears trying to come up with words to discredit workers doing their bare-minimum such as "quiet quitting".
  
  It shouldn't be a conspiracy theory to claim that a few people control the reins of a lot of workers... in reality it's a community of few thousand billionaires cooperating to oppress workers.
  
  Edit:
  
  Just because we don't physically picket in front of our offices, does not mean we are not protesting. It's just not visible in an outward manner.
  
  And just because we all seem to be doing our own thing, doesn't mean we aren't organizing. We just consider organizing as just quietly aligning our wallets and behaviours without being overt about it. I am sure there are a lot of organization for software developers for people who do want to be loud about it too.
  
  A strike is a specific thing. That you do as part of a unit.
  
  does not mean we are not protesting.
  
  But that doesn't make it a strike either.
  
  Not everything that hurts the company is a strike.
  
  A strike is a group based action in which you refuse to do your job while demanding to get some level concessions before you'll go back to work. Quiet quiting fails the organization aspect, and the demand aspect.
  
  We just consider organizing as just quietly aligning our wallets and behaviours without being overt about it
  
  That's not the same type of organizing that needs to take place for something to be considered a strike.
  
  I am sure there are a lot of organization for software developers for people who do want to be loud about it too.
  
  When they are, then it may be considered a strike.
  
  A strike is a refusal to commit labour to the company.
  
  ...except you don't do it individually, you should do it collectivelly, else it won't make any lasting difference and will probably get you fired
Not even close to sufficient imo

We need a strike. Shut everything down.
- How are you contributing to that?
  
  I don't think these types of challenges are, in any way helpful or in our collective benefit.
  
  It's just to understand if you do politics or you just talk about politics.
  
  Criticizing without strategic and contextual awareness of what you're criticizing should stop being normalized. If you just have opinions on stuff instead of building or participating into organizations, I know for sure I can disregard your words.
  
  then you're oddly commenting on a thread about striking.. which is secondary to the important step of building organizations and support structures. Its hard to near impossible for people to strike who depend on that pay check to clear debt, pay rent, etc. Participating in regular organizing events is the right advice, and you got off on the wrong foot asking first for people to strike and only when asked questions you revealed people need to organize. without the proper support structures and alternative means of income in place, it is near impossible to convince people to strike. They need the strike because they don't have financial security to stop obeying their boss. You're ignoring the initial situation. That's creating a perception of you being about only what you think needs to happen without considering others.
  
  Edit: I did not mean YOU specifically asked people to strike first but you get the point. I am reacting to "we need to strike" as a sentence on its own.
  
  you answered to the wrong person.