There Is No Power In A Union

[diffrentcolours]

About 9 months ago I joined UTAW, the tech worker's union (technically a branch of the CWU rather than a union in its own right). Recently I left it.

I joined because I was hoping to find a group of like-minded people in the tech industry, to take action on AI/LLM technology, and on the pandemic and Return To Office mandates. I didn't see anything like that on UTAW's website but I was told it'd be like "pushing at an open door". So I signed up, and joined the official Discord.

There were Discord channels about AI and RTO, but nothing really happened in them. There wasn't anywhere to talk about the pandemic. Pretty much all the channels were links and shitposting, or generically lefty stuff like supporting LGBT+ rights and Palestine, both of which are worthy causes but already have many campaigns dedicated to them. The main activity that seemed to be going on was trying to get members to organise branches at their workplaces, which wasn't really relevant to me as a tech worker in a non-tech company. There were some local socials but mostly in pandemic-unfriendly venues, organised last-minute or on nights where I had other commitments.

There were also occasional branch meetings; these were advertised, but you had to be following the right Discord channels to find out what was going to be discussed before the agenda was published. By that point you could only vote yes or no on the motions and only by attending the meeting in person. Strange that a tech union couldn't do anything better for democracy. There are thousands of members of the union, so the hundreds on Discord aren't a great sample - but better than the dozen or so who turn up to the branch meetings. And online voting is a solved problem.

What struck me as particularly odd is that the motions I saw had nothing to do with tech. There was a particularly divisive motion on Israel which got voted down, and one on electoral reform which promoted a non-preferential system which got voted through. Why would I as a member go to meetings for this?

I tried raising these issues on Discord - about the lack of accessibility of information, and the lack of focus on tech issues. I was made to feel like an idiot for not knowing how a trade union works, and was told "as a member you have the power to get the union to do everything it can to support the issues you care about by writing motions". But it was never explained what a union can do other than pass motions.

There were also things that troubled me that I didn't raise. A lot of the union's budget seemed to go on sending its exec members to various conferences and meetings, paying for hotels and transport, which all seemed to be lovely jollies for people to see friends. There were also donations to large Pride events, rather than the smaller events which could use the money more.

Rather than pushing at an open door, I felt like I was in a maze full of open doors, leading nowhere but twisty circles. Nobody ever told me I couldn't do anything, but nobody explained what I could do instead. it was opaque to those not in the inner circle or not familiar with trade unions. I briefly considered standing for election as comms officer to try and fix some of these problems but I felt the union as a whole was institutionally hostile to improving, and my minimal level of engagement was already sucking a lot of my energy.

Resigning was also a farce; the CWU website wouldn't let me log in or reset a password using the email address via which they sent me communications. So I just cancelled the Direct Debit for my membership payment, and they were right on top of that - a few days later I got a letter confirming my membership had been cancelled.

I do think it'd be good to have some kind of organisation working in the interests of the tech sector and tech workers. But UTAW isn't it - it's something co-opting tech workers to serving the interests of the trade union movement. At least I only wasted a relatively small amount of time and money finding this out.

Comments

[diffrentcolours]

Like I say, there was some workplace organising going on. They claimed some big successes at Apple and Google, though mostly all I saw was they got a few people to sign a toothless group letter.

I saw a thing on Fedi the other day talking about how tech workers had seen themselves above the traditional labour / management divide. I think it's more that we've been sufficiently unaware of the history of labour relations, and too easily swayed by free pizzas and pool tables.