About Us
Tech Workers Union 1010 will be a local union within OPEIU created for and run by tech workers. We are forming around a core of engineers, community support agents, designers, trust and safety analysts, product managers, salespeople, operations specialists, finance administrators, and every other person that makes tech companies run.
Tech companies wield immense power. They foster connection, creativity, and curiosity across the globe. But behind the scenes, we’ve seen who is rewarded and who is reprimanded, who is listened to and who is ignored. These have direct impacts on salary, benefits, and perpetuating inequity in our workplace. When workers stand up for what's right, the consequences reveal how little power we have when we act alone.
Tech is being held back by investor-driven decisions, abuses of privacy, and algorithms that reproduce inequality. Workers across the tech industry are standing up and speaking out within their companies and publicly. Absent worker protection, tech companies silence dissent with retaliatory firings, NDAs, anti-union consultants, admonishments during all hands meetings, and other fear tactics.
It’s time for every tech worker to have a voice in our workplaces. With a union, workers flourish: people are safe sharing feedback and exchanging new ideas in the open. Those of us closest to problems get a say in how they’re solved, hardcoding our values into technology that reaches far beyond our workplaces.
Tech Workers Union 1010 is proud to contribute to OPEIU’s mission to improve the lives of working families by bringing economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our communities. The tech industry is too vast to be organized by a couple staff organizers at a few of the major unions. That’s why this union is led by us, the tech workers, who are organizing our workplaces and committed to supporting one another. Through collective worker power and solidarity across the tech industry, we will win.
Join fellow tech workers who are organizing for a voice in our workplaces.FAQs
Q: Things are pretty good at work. Why do I need a union?
The goal of a union is to balance power between workers and management, empowering workers with the ability to bargain over the terms and conditions of their employment. Forming a union allows you to stand together as coworkers to protect what's great at your workplace and improve what isn't.
Q: I work at a tech company, but I don’t work on a product team. Am I a tech worker?
Yes, you are! Tech Workers Union 1010 is composed of every worker who helps tech companies run. Whether you're fighting to make a living wage or earning a comfortable salary, everyone deserves a say over their working conditions. Together, we’re securing our rights at work.
Q: How does OPEIU Tech Workers Union 1010 support workers?
Local 1010 is a local union run by and for tech workers. The needs of each campaign are different based on the unique context of each workplace. OPEIU centers worker creativity and leadership while offering guidance, structure, and training on how to navigate a union campaign. Tech workers within our local organize their workplaces and commit to supporting one another. We share learnings and build solidarity across workplaces, helping each other succeed in our union campaigns.
Q: How do I start forming a union with my coworkers?
It all starts with a conversation! Assessing your colleagues’ interest in forming a union in your workplaces is step one. Working with Tech Workers Union 1010, you’ll have seasoned organizers and fellow tech workers to help navigate each step of the process as you and your colleagues build majority support in your own workplace. The path to union recognition is unique to each workplace, and each campaign is driven by you and the solidarity that you build with your colleagues.
Q: What kinds of pushbacks should we expect from management?
You have a legal right to organize a union in your workplace under the National Labor Relations Act. Additionally, it is illegal for an employer to question, retaliate, discriminate, discipline or discharge its covered employees for coming together to improve their working conditions under Section 7 of the Act.
That said, it's always best to be aware of and prepare yourself for the standard playbook management often uses to intimidate workers during union campaigns. These include:
Saying things like “Just give us time, we’ll fix things” and “We’re a family. The union is a third party that will come between us.”
Holding captive audience meetings or 1:1s where they share their opinions or spread misinformation about unionizing.
Hiring union busting consultants to advise them on union-avoidance tactics.
Creating division or competition between workers, trying to pit you against your colleagues.
Sharing “union facts” in company-wide communication that are greatly skewed and spread misinformation.
Making small or superficial fixes to outstanding issues that they think fuel the union effort.
Want to talk more about how to identify union busting and build a union that helps you build power at work? Get in touch.
Q: Tell me about OPEIU.
A: Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) was chartered in 1945. With more than 104,000 members strong, we’re one of the larger unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO. OPEIU has locals in every state, Puerto Rico, and Canada. You are not alone when you join OPEIU.
OPEIU was the first union to organize a tech company, with the successful Kickstarter campaign in February 2020. In addition to tech workers, OPEIU represents employees in non-profit organizations, credit unions, hospitals and medical clinics, insurance, higher education, transportation, shipping, utilities, hotels, administrative offices and more.
Q: How do union dues work?
Dues are set by each local, and no union member pays dues until after you bargain and ratify (vote on) your first contract with the help of Local 1010. This means you will have the opportunity to see what benefits a union contract provides before you ever pay any money in dues. At Local 1010, dues rates will be based on a percentage of your wages or salary, which are negotiated in your union contract. This ensures that those who have lower wages or salaries pay proportionally lower dues.