(2021-05-04) Hon S09e24 Vestigial Unions Weird

Dan Hon: s09e24: Vestigial; Unions; Weird.

“The future of work” and unions

there’s this thought I keep coming back to about platform-unions, as in: what do community/member-owned platforms look like?

The prolific Darius Kazemi had started Feel Train, a worker-owned creative technology co-op – you can see its operating documents, and it would be wonderful to see more worker/member-owned organizations like REI.

I’m intrigued by the idea of the purpose of innovation for a labor union.

say you win. Say we achieve, somehow, an idyllic future where we’re post-scarcity, or there’s enough post scarcity (yeah, doesn’t make sense, I know), and wealth is distributed significantly more evenly

you don’t have to be paid to be a teacher because your fundamental needs are being met, but that teaching for you is a calling. Could there be a teachers’ union for that?

I might have a better example than the teaching one, one that I’ve written about before, I think: could a taxi drivers’ union have come up with something like a ride-sharing platform?

I’d be super interested to see trends forecasting and 10-30 year strategic plans for unions and what they’re doing about it.