Karin!nirak@carhenge.club
Oct 7, 2026, 2:05 AM@cassey curious if you know if many/most programmers you've heard of organized with fellow non programmer coworkers?
Replies
- Karin!nirak@carhenge.clubOct 7, 2026, 2:14 AM
@cassey also I would read this like posts criticizing people that don't vote. Obviously it doesn't apply to people who voted or who can't vote?
But like, not enough people unionized, and not enough people voted, so I think it's fair to criticize those that don't (or didn't try, I know some try and fail) 🤷
No time like the present, I guess!
Cassey Lottmancassey@ottawa.placeOct 7, 2026, 12:40 PM@nirak well, I don't think the posts criticizing people who don't vote are particularly useful, either :D It's demoralizing for the people you aren't talking to, and doesn't seem likely to actually change anyone who doesn't vote's mind. It's disempowering for pretty much anyone who reads it, unless they just also want to feel good about any problems being located firmly somewhere else.
- Cassey Lottmancassey@ottawa.placeOct 7, 2026, 12:47 PM
@nirak unionizing a company with only programmers/members of one department would be pretty rare with how US labor law works; you typically get either the whole company's workforce or nothing. That's part of why contracting is so favored by big companies even for programming work, but also for all the service stuff like staffing the company cafeteria: any potential solidarity between the lower paid support staff and the higher paid primary business roles is harder to turn into action. Sometimes those contractors have attempted or been able to organize against the primary company, like these specific Google contractors for instance: https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org/press/google-help-workers-announce-union-with-alphabet-workers-union-cwa
The New York Times Tech Guild is a notable exception that's department-specific, and comes from a specific dynamic there where the non-tech workers are already covered (iirc) by a union only available to the editorial/journalism side staff.
Others afaik like Glitch, Code for America, Kickstarter and all the rest would have applied to the whole company, though management is still generally excluded.
- Karin!nirak@carhenge.clubOct 7, 2026, 1:25 PM
@cassey Excepting management, it does seem like unionizing the entire company is the better idea. Obviously easier for smaller places though.
I see this a lot in academia- faculty unionize with faculty only, leaving staff to fend for themselves, and staff have much less power to do so, or to bargain effectively if they do