A letter I wrote to a friend

I have formed the opinion that the way forward in America is not through elections but through labor organizations (or other unions) forcing the government to do the right thing. I have watched more than 50 years of failed political solutions and I am willing to believe we should try something else. Apparently one of the difficulties in forming unions is the difficulty in finding leadership. This seems particularly unfortunate as "power corrupts" and leaders, inevitably, tend to have power. The conclusion might be that leaders always become corrupt, so maybe they should be avoided. So I wrote my friend Johannes, who works in labor organizing at SEIU

I hope you are safe and well. 

I have been thinking about unionizing software and realized that the most fundamental issue is not about finding leadership but about getting people to feel solidarity with each other. I am guessing that barriers to unionizing are often seen as a matter of conflict between employer and worker. That is what all the newspaper stories are about. But I think the conflict between individual workers and creation of solidarity might be the most significant challenge. After all, you are asking people to put their jobs on the line when they strike. They won't do it out of self interest but they will do it out of solidarity.

On a related note: I think the goal of merging unions (like merging all transportation-related unions) is a crucial need in America. And I think the dynamic for this might be similar to  the dynamic for forming a union itself, with similar solidarity issues between unions, rather than individual people. On the other hand, there is no "employer" and it is all about creating solidarity and figuring out how to define an all-purpose employment contract - something that would need to include an understanding of the government's role.

These are some tough issues to think about.  

Update: I got a better idea. If unions should not need a leader, workers should not need a union. What they need is a good employment contract. This leads to the idea of a universal contract.