{"id":50035,"date":"2026-09-07T13:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T20:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=50035"},"modified":"2026-09-07T13:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T20:01:21","slug":"tech-workers-start-to-see-promise-in-unions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/07\/tech-workers-start-to-see-promise-in-unions\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech workers start to see promise in unions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Troy_Wolverton\">By Troy Wolverton | Examiner staff writer<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sep 6, 2026 (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/8\/50\/850fa348-e27f-4bcc-9741-263dc564fafb\/6a7f3828b3521.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"Emma Jackson_Alphabet Workers Union_14Aug2026_041.JPG\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Emma Jackson, who works at Google and is the communications chair for the Alphabet Workers Union: \u201cThis is why we need a union \u2014 so that we can have solidarity with each other and we have &#8230; the infrastructure to support each other.\u201dCraig Lee\/The Examiner<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lucas said he\u2019s been in the Bay Area working in the tech industry for 10 years \u2014 primarily at startups, but also at one of the big tech companies. He\u2019s worked as a software engineer and managed small teams. Currently, he works for a 500-person company that makes software for biologists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So far, so normal in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Lucas\u2019 present ambition is a bit different from many of his tech-industry peers, past and present. He isn\u2019t aiming to found his own unicorn or invent some new, mega-popular product or service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, he\u2019s working to form a union at his company and trying to help other tech workers who have similar ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lucas, who asked not to use his real name for fear of putting his job at risk, said he sees the organizing efforts as a way for workers like himself to build power, form a community, have more say over their jobs and working conditions \u2014 and counter the influence of billionaire tech CEOs and venture capitalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want the tech industry to serve the community around me,\u201d Lucas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of folks that feel that way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>California is one of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/union2.t05.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most union-friendly states<\/a>&nbsp;in the nation, and the San Francisco region is one of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/laborcenter.berkeley.edu\/union-density-and-membership-in-california\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most unionized metro areas<\/a>&nbsp;in the state. Despite that, labor organizers have never made many inroads in the tech industry; exceedingly few tech workers are represented by unions or have even been involved in organizing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labor activists such as Lucas say they believe the tide is turning. Support for unions among the American public is at its&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/694472\/labor-union-approval-relatively-steady.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">highest level in about 60 years<\/a>, according to Gallup. Younger workers, which make up much of the tech industry\u2019s ranks, are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/article\/everybody-likes-unions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">particularly pro-union<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, the massive layoffs of recent years, the wholesale&nbsp;moves by companies to push artificial-intelligence tools into the workplace and their products, and a growing sense of precarity and powerlessness have spurred some tech workers to look into organizing in their industry, Lucas and other activists say. So, too, have the increasingly close ties between certain companies and the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMost of the people that we get in touch with find us right now, rather than us finding them,\u201d said Joshua Carroll, one of the leaders of the Bay Area chapter of the Tech Workers Coalition, a grassroots group trying to raise awareness of unions among industry workers and help with organizing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople are very happy to find out they\u2019re not alone,\u201d said Carroll, a product manager at Google Cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Union efforts and labor activism in the tech industry date back to at least the mid-1970s, when&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/workerorganizing.org\/premajority-unionism\/case-studies\/allianceibm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">workers at IBM started organizing themselves<\/a>. Such activity has ebbed and flowed over the years, typically rising amid economic downturns or uncertainty such as the dot-com bust or the Great Recession, said Ron Hira, a political-science professor at Howard University who focuses on labor issues and policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But outside of the digital publishing industry, which has seen a slew of unions, few of those efforts succeeded in forming unions that were able to collectively bargain on behalf of workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IBM effort, for example, existed for decades as a member organization that represented workers and pressured management, but it never sought or formed a bargaining unit that was recognized by the company or the National Labor Relations Board.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.postbulletin.com\/business\/alliance-ibm-dissolves-after-17-years\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">It shut down in 2016<\/a>&nbsp;in the wake of job cuts at the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generally speaking, it\u2019s hard to form a recognized union in this country, labor experts say. Companies often fight organizing efforts and frequently retaliate against organizers. Even without that opposition, it can take years to build enough support to win a majority vote within a discrete group of workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As union membership has dwindled in the country\u2014&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epi.org\/publication\/as-union-membership-has-fallen-the-top-10-percent-have-been-getting-a-larger-share-of-income\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">compared with its peak<\/a>&nbsp;in the middle of the last century \u2014 fewer people are growing up in union households or know people who are in unions, Hira said. Labor representatives are rarely on TV, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re not exposed to them, you\u2019re not even thinking that way,\u201d Hira said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tech industry has been particularly tough for the labor movement to crack. Even within antiunion corporate America, the tech industry has fought particularly hard against organizing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there are plenty of other reasons for the industry\u2019s dearth of unions, labor experts say. Tech jobs have tended to be high paying, with lots of benefits and stock-based compensation offering a chance for even bigger paydays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That factor has addressed some of the key issues that often prompt workers to organize, noted Marcus Courtney, who helped lead a union effort at Microsoft in the late 1990s and early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are also cultural and class considerations. The industry has long been known for its libertarian streak, and many workers see themselves as individuals who succeed or fail based on their own merit rather than as part of a collective. What\u2019s more, engineers \u2014 including computer programmers \u2014 identify more as managers or professionals than workers, Hira said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of all that, workers are divided from each other in numerous ways, he said. Tech jobs come in many different flavors and are spread across numerous companies and regions, he said. Even within particular companies, workers are often split between contractors and full-time workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All that makes tech workers hard to organize, and the result is that they are among the least unionized workforces in the country. Across all occupations,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/union2.nr0.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">10% of workers belong to unions<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 but as of last year, just 3.7% of computer and mathematical professionals were union members,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/union2.t03.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to data<\/a>&nbsp;from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe tech industry is probably the only industry in the history of the United States that [has] \u2026 become an industrial pillar of the nation\u2019s economy that is basically union-free,\u201d Courtney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ex \/\/ Top Story<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/public-health\/kaiser-nurses-to-hold-one-day-picket-over-ai-use-concerns\/article_2848dce7-8c93-40d1-8e72-ae47495777bc.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">Kaiser nurses to hold one-day picket over AI-use concerns<\/a><br><strong>Workers are participating in an informational protest Tuesday\u00a0at 22 of the health-care giant\u2019s locations across the state \u2014 including in San Francisco<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, things have started to change over the past 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Workers at project-management software company Glitch&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cwa-union.org\/news\/releases\/tech-workers-app-developer-glitch-vote-form-union-and-join-cwa-organizing-initiative\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">formed a union in 2020<\/a>&nbsp;that was immediately recognized by the company. The union negotiated a contract the following year \u2014&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inverse.com\/input\/culture\/software-workers-first-collective-bargaining-win-comes-from-glitch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly the first ever<\/a>&nbsp;in the software industry \u2014 but ultimately&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/off-prem\/2022\/05\/19\/fastly-buys-glitch-web-ide\/292119\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dissolved following mass layoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other organizing efforts have had more long-term success. Employees of crowdfunding site Kickstarter&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2020\/feb\/18\/kickstarter-union-crowdfunding-tech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">voted to create a union<\/a>&nbsp;in 2020 and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rascal.news\/kickstarter-united-ends-six-week-strike-with-a-resounding-victory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">successfully bargained for a contract<\/a>&nbsp;last year. Tech workers at The New York Times&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyguild.org\/post\/from-the-new-york-times-new-york-times-tech-workers-form-a-union\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">formed a union<\/a>&nbsp;the following year and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/11\/business\/media\/new-york-times-tech-guild-deal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">agreed to a deal<\/a>&nbsp;with the company in 2024&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2024\/nov\/04\/new-york-times-tech-union-strike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">after a strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps the surprising development of the most recent effort is that there are now unions at two of the major tech companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Microsoft was trying to buy Activision Blizzard in 2022, it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/13\/business\/economy\/microsoft-activision-union.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pledged to be neutral<\/a>\u00a0toward a nascent organizing drive at the video-game producer and publisher. Thousands of workers at Microsoft\u2019s games units\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/08\/technology\/microsoft-activision-gaming-union.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">have since organized<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cwa-union.org\/news\/releases\/activision-blizzards-platform-and-technology-workers-form-union-communications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">across<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cwa-union.org\/news\/releases\/activision-blizzards-platform-and-technology-workers-form-union-communications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">multiple unions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Workers at Alphabet\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/04\/technology\/google-employees-union.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launched a union in 2021<\/a>. Unlike the unions at Microsoft, it hasn\u2019t sought recognition by the company or the NLRB. But the Alphabet Workers Union has signed up members from across the country and has successfully lobbied management on behalf of workers, said Emma Jackson, who works at Alphabet-owned Google and is the communications chair for the labor group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-13.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50046\" srcset=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-13.png 750w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-13-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-13-150x100.png 150w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-13-225x150.png 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-12.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50045\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Workers at Alphabet, Google\u2019s parent company (seen during an event in Mountain View in May 2024), launched a union in 2021. In general, tech workers have been slow to unionize, but organizers say they see an opportunity as artificial intelligence takes over the industry.Jeff Chiu\/Associated Press<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Jackson declined to say how many workers were in the union, but she said it includes both full-time employees and contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Google has cut staff over the last two years, it has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/01\/31\/google-offers-voluntary-buyouts-to-hardware-and-platform-teams.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prioritized buyouts<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;in which employees volunteer to leave in return for severance packages \u2014&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/06\/10\/google-buyouts-search-ads-unit.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">over layoffs<\/a>. That came in response to the union, Jackson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile we weren\u2019t across the bargaining table for that, our pressure and our demands helped us win that offer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jackson, who said she has worked at Google for 22 years, had bought into the notion that the company was different. She believed in its initial \u2014&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/4060575\/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">and since abandoned<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 \u201cdon\u2019t be evil\u201d motto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said she got involved with the union effort in part because she felt like the company had strayed from those values. She was also motivated by seeing how \u2014 even after employees tried to hold it to its values \u2014 their gains were often short-lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/show\/amid-pressure-from-employees-google-drops-pentagons-project-maven-account\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">abandoning its Defense Department work<\/a>&nbsp;in 2018 in response to employee pushback, for example, Google recently&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2026\/05\/04\/google-employee-backlash-pentagon-ai-contract-power-waned-since-project-maven\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">signed a new deal<\/a>&nbsp;to provide AI tools to the Pentagon, Jackson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following a massive walkout by workers in 2018\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/google-walkout-employees-protest-over-sexual-harassment-scandals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">protesting its handling<\/a>\u00a0of sexual-harassment claims, Google\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodmorningamerica.com\/news\/story\/google-drops-forced-arbitration-sexual-harassment-assault-cases-59084593\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ended its policy<\/a>\u00a0of requiring arbitration to deal with such incidents. But two of the leaders of the walkout effort\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/google-walkout-organizers-say-theyre-facing-retaliation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleged the company retaliated<\/a>\u00a0against them, a charge it denies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-14.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50047\" srcset=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-14.png 640w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-14-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-14-150x100.png 150w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-14-225x150.png 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-8.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50041\" style=\"width:27px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Workers outside Google\u2019s Mountain View headquarters in November 2018 protest the company\u2019s handling of sexual-misconduct allegations.Noah Berger\/Associated Press<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Employees at the time didn\u2019t have a union to back them up, Jackson said. She and her coworkers have learned from this experience, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is why we need a union \u2014 so that we can have solidarity with each other and we have &#8230; the infrastructure to support each other,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Bay Area, there are reports of tech organizing beyond what\u2019s happening at Google and Lucas\u2019 company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lucas, who is also active in the Tech Workers Coalition, said he is aware of other early-stage union efforts at other companies. Carroll said some coalition members are working to organize inside some of San Francisco\u2019s big tech companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lucas said those efforts are likely going to be slow and deliberate as organizers talk with employees, find out what they\u2019re upset about and build an organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite his awareness of the past history of union efforts and his own involvement in the movement, Courtney said he thinks now is a propitious time to be organizing the industry, thanks to artificial intelligence. The rapid adoption of the technology has given rise to widespread concern about how it\u2019s affecting jobs and fears that it could lead to mass unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, the AI industry is increasingly reliant on unionized workers to build the data centers that will run and train its models, Courtney said. And industry leaders such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have talked about needing to address the potential for AI-induced job losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such factors are creating an opportunity, stoking tech workers\u2019 appetite for organizing, while potentially making companies more receptive to unions, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think there\u2019s an opportunity there,\u201d Courtney said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lucas said he\u2019s been in the Bay Area working in the tech industry for 10 years \u2014 primarily at startups, but also at one of the big tech companies. He\u2019s worked as a software engineer and managed small teams. Currently, he works for a 500-person company that makes software for&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/07\/tech-workers-start-to-see-promise-in-unions\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2030,2467],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50048,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50035\/revisions\/50048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}