5 - Collective Bargaining Agreements and Unions in the Modern Economy

Summary

This chapter identifies the need for more cooperation between workers and management in light of the steep national decline in unionization. It examines how the lack of formal collective bargaining has directly impacted workers in the technology sector. It further explores the nontraditional efforts at worker organization, including the Freelancer’s Union, Working America, and the Uber Guild. This chapter also looks at workplace participation groups and discusses their role in the employment setting and explains the potential advantages and disadvantages of quasi-unions in the technology sector, exploring how the alt-labor strategy can fit within the contours of the modern economy. It concludes by examining what quasi-unions should look like in the modern economy and it describes the three primary foms such groups could assume.