Portside

Employers are using heavy-handed tactics to prevent workers from organizing, and U.S. labor union density is falling as a result.

The year has been characterized by incredible solidarity, as Starbucks and Amazon workers challenged our conceptions of political possibility and galvanized a resurgent labor movement. It was a year of taking power to task, from the fearless Warrior Met strike to the militance of worker-led, independent union drives at Amazon, Trader Joe's and Chipotle.

Logistics workers in rail, trucking, and warehouses labor hard to bring us our packages year-round. But their employers subject them to ruthless harassment, surveillance, and union busting. Their organizing efforts need our solidarity this Christmas.

So far, tech's labor activism has largely moved on the margins of the industry, with Amazon warehouse workers, Apple Store employees and video game QA testers leading organizing efforts, while engineers, product teams and other headquarters staff mostly shied away.

If the unionization vote passes, it’ll be a landmark win for more than one reason: It would create the largest video game industry union in the United States, and the first official U.S. union under Microsoft.