In a world where collaboration and collective action are catalysts for change, the Tech Workers Coalition has continually exemplified the power of autonomous voices. Recently, as TWC Global, we organized an event to shed light on what happens on the ground in local chapters– the Chapter Retrospective Meeting. This private gathering brought together individuals from various walks of the tech industry who had embarked, at different points in time, on the journey of establishing or maintaining TWC local chapters.
The Chapter Retrospective Meeting was a moment to share our experiences and recount the story of how our own chapter(s) started. Seasoned tech-organizing veterans converged to share the unique narratives of their local chapter inception. The room buzzed with a vibrant exchange of stories that revealed both triumphs and challenges.
As the discussion unfolded, we identified a few recurring elements that we think are worth to be repeated and shared. They might sound obvious to the more experienced among our readers, but we still think they are valuable insights.
Many local chapters grew around their social events in bars, pubs and private homes. Drinks, food and informal discussions consistently attracted tech workers from Seattle to Rome. These events addressed the systematic lack of spaces for tech workers to meet, to share their grievances, to find connections to support their initiatives inside and outside the workplace.
Social gatherings are the backbone of many chapters, generating momentum, circulating ideas and especially bringing new people in. These events act as an entry point and funnel people to the different activities and work groups each chapter has. More structured onboarding activities have been tried, but were unable to achieve comparable results.
Very early in their development, most local chapters figured out the best function they could fulfill in the growing Tech Workers Movement was to be a space to connect already existing initiatives in their area that needed training, mediatic reach, legal and strategic know-how.
Many chapters worked on campaigns, actions, services and events on their own and can claim substantial impact. Nonetheless, the biggest successes were achieved by people participating in TWC spaces but involved primarily in other organizations. TWC for years was directly connected to most victories happening in the space of tech unionization, acting as an enabler and multiplier of possibilities.
The most interesting conversation though was the one around COVID and its effect on TWC. Most chapters were almost exclusively organized through in-person processes and governance structures, often informal and undocumented. The abrupt interruption of in-person meetings was a hard hit for most of them; they saw their numbers reduced or their activities completely halted. The surviving chapters took a long time to recover. The exception was TWC Italy, because it was started at the beginning of the pandemic and organized primarily online.
No chapter seemed to be able to react consciously and rationally to the arrival of the lockdowns, and no intentional strategies were deployed to guarantee the reproduction of the organization in digital spaces. These reflections always raise the same point: will we be ready when the next pandemic hits? Can we develop organizations capable of flexibly retreating into digital spaces without losing too much momentum?
After the round of presentations from each chapter, an open discussion took place. Building upon the topics we just presented, the participants focused on the legacy of these first nine years of TWC. What has changed? What is now possible that was impossible before?
We all agreed that the Tech Workers Movement, a concept that didn’t have any traction at the inception of TWC, is now in a favorable position in the Global North and has a momentum that keeps fueling workers struggles. The contribution of TWC to this movement was both cultural, through the conceptualization of the tech worker as an identity opposed to the “virtual class” of the Californian Ideology, and organizational, through the enabling effects discussed before.
While the participation of tech workers in unions is still low in absolute numbers, the trend is clear: collective actions in tech are the new normal. Every day, the news reports stories of tech workers from major companies forming unions and fighting management policies. This would have been unthinkable a decade ago, especially in the USA. In the rest of the world, traditional organizing was already penetrating the IT sector with varying degrees of success in the early 2000s, while in the USA it had very little relevance outside a few sub-sectors. Today the difference is evident and nobody could deny that the Tech Workers Movement is on the rise.
The seed has been planted. Now, how do we grow a field?
We concluded our session with an open question. If what we believe was the perceived main goal of TWC has been achieved in most of the countries in which we operate, is it time to set a new one? Since TWC lacks a form of cross-chapter governance, no specific institution is in charge of defining and updating the strategy. While the creation of such an institution could be a goal in itself, we believe a broader conversation should be started around the ideas presented in this short article. A new phase could be conceptualized, and our strategies could be adapted accordingly.
A chance to have this conversation face to face will be the Labor Notes 2023 Tech Organizing Conference that will be held in New York on October 8th. This is the place to be for anybody involved in tech organizing in the USA. Save the date!