Every Worker Needs a Union

In May 2020, as colleagues faced layoffs during the pandemic, Kickstarter United members shared what building the first union in tech meant to them. These are their words.

This experience has shown me that unions are the only way to have a true voice in your workplace. Being a part of the Kickstarter union has showed me what being truly accounted for looks like - what being truly listened to and heard feels like. Having the ability to come together and win a safe severance package will never be lost on me. Tech needs unions now more than ever.
My severance is far more than other jobs' stock options got me. Solidarity > stock market.
A company may be run by kind, caring, thoughtful folks, but in the end - in a global pandemic in the worst economic recession since the Depression - they won't have your back. They never did. Your fellow workers will. The joy I feel knowing we came together to ensure a fair severance package for all is some of the only joy I've felt in weeks. The gratitude I have for my coworkers and comrades is endless.
Empowering each other is gorgeous. Unions are us. I believe in us.
Your boss will never have your back like a union will.
Those with power like to prescribe the borders of our imagination so that we believe there is no alternative to the system we're living under. But solidarity and labor organizing show us a way out. They disrupt dominant narratives and rebuild our collective values from the ground up, letting us envision and enact the future we want to be a part of.
A union brings power balance to the workplace. People over profit!
To know that you're not the only one who believes positive change is possible, while feeling supported in using your voice as part of a collective to achieve that change.
My dream job paid 10% less than my male counterpart. HR & my manager told me we were on "different career trajectories." My coworkers told me the truth - it was the pay gap. Alone I had no real power. As a union, we organized against inequity. It's night and day."
Here's one thing the bosses will never tell you: YOU are the union. You and your peers get to decide what your union values, what your union fights for, and how your union makes those decisions.
Google 'fist of five.' Then compare that process to how decisions get made at your workplace. Really makes you think...
'It always seems impossible until it is done.' - Nelson Mandela
An injury to one is an injury to all!
No amount of friendship can make up for a fundamentally abusive and sexist workplace experience. (p.s. You can have friendships and your union! They are not mutually exclusive. you may have heard otherwise...)
Working with Kickstarter United was eye-opening. If you think your white-collar tech company's leadership has your back, and you don't need a union, I'd like to tell you that you're wrong. Even the best-intentioned companies will gut their ranks to survive. Unions are the only way to ensure a company will put its people over its capitalistic agenda. They're also a lesson in collaborative leadership, mutual aid, and resiliency. Starting a union is a way to fast-track your education around how resilient, mutually beneficial organizations can exist in this world. It's worth the effort.
Organizing with my colleagues showed me just how great our company *could* be.
There were so many times I thought we'd made a fatal mistake, so many times I thought management had us beat. Even in those moments, I thought 'Well, this was worth fighting for.' And then we kept working, kept talking to our colleagues, weathering the blows and meeting misinformation with truth. And then...we won.
In times of crisis, even the most mission-driven companies, organizations, and non-profits will put their survival first above workers' health and livelihoods. Before this I optimistically thought a company would do the right thing for at-risk workers in need, but it was my fellow workers via the union who fought for and won the protections, healthcare, and severance we now have heading into this economic depression.
If you haven't tried voting on something at work, I highly recommend it
At work, we're taught that our salaries, performance reviews, benefits, experiences of harassment, etc. are private. We're not supposed to share with anyone. But when you talk to your colleagues, the isolation disappears and everything becomes possible. Share your story, build power, protect one another.
Venture capitalists will never protect your job.
You may find a company whose values align with yours, but as far as the owners are concerned, those values always come second to profit. If you care about your work, you have to stand with your coworkers. After all, you're the ones who built it.
Maybe your work place is great. Maybe work is just work and you try not to get too worked up about it. Maybe your colleagues are like your family. Maybe you've seen some messed up stuff and felt alone and unable to handle it. No matter what your workplace is like, I promise you'll feel better with a union and knowing your colleagues have your back.
Corporations are not your friend.
You are not a problem for speaking up and demanding basic dignity at work. The only people who profit from your silence are the people who never cared about you in the first place.