Optimizing Versus Organizing, Towards an Understanding of How Digital Technologies Facilitate and Fracture Union Organizing

About

Labor organizing and union organizing is one of the premier tools for reducing income inequality and promoting a more equitable society, with American workers constantly reporting high approval ratings and the desire to have a workplace union. Despite high approval, American workers have historic lows in terms of workplace unionization. In this talk, I will review two current papers (both in review) on my recent work helping to better understand the role digital technologies play within unionization. First, we will review my findings on the role of digital workplace technologies in counter-organizing, the mobilizing of workplace tools to organize against a workplace union drive. Second, we will dive into the role of digital tools within union organizing, highlighting both the challenges and success of organizing in a "digital age". Finally, we will conclude with some brief theorizing and participant discussion on the role of workplace technologies within our lives, reflecting on our relationships between work and computation.