I feel weird sometimes seeing the “this is all because tech workers didn’t unionize” type comments because, well, some of us did!
The tech union I was part of won voluntary recognition, and was the able to negotiate better severance when most of us got laid off shortly after (very predictably, which had helped build support for the union-forming efforts, in fact, as we knew it was likely coming).
At a tech nonprofit where I once worked, but after I left, workers successfully organized to demand the CEO step down or be removed for bad behavior towards employees. Others I know worked on efforts like Tech Won’t Build It and resistance internally in companies big and small re: working with the military industrial complex. Others were legally prohibited from unionizing in their roles in government service, and yet made incredible contributions to their field before getting DOGEd, and after, in raising the alarms or trying to continue protecting the American people.
It’s easy to piss on tech workers as privileged babies who deserve what’s happening in their chosen field. Maybe too easy! And takes the pressure off who’s really at fault, who’s calling the shots now, and who still has power to change the course of the future. (That last one’s all of us, but disdain and defeatism about what’s already happened won’t get us there.)
