Proudly pronounced dead by the ruling classes at the beginning of the Interplanetary Period, labor unions made a huge comeback as colonists realized they needed to rely more and more on each other to settle new worlds, and that the "go-it-alone" attitude that had engendered the previous death of unions wouldn't allow them to survive very long in space. New labor unions and organized trade unions began appearing on almost every world, generally outside of the sphere of the God AIs, since they had no use for labor unions. At present. the Verge and Bleed is in a second or third golden age for organized labor, with several major labor unions taking a seat in the Verge Consortium, and labor unions influencing governments from the Technocracy the Regency, with them only being illegal in the Imperium and Nariac, as well as other, smaller more authoritarian governments.
Who are Labor UnionsLabor Unions are, at their heart, groups of workers who get together and use their collective leverage to bargain for a better deal from management. Within the Marxist view of history, management/employers and labor have nothing and common and share a mutually antagonistic relationship, with management constantly trying drive down wages so it costs them less to run, and labor seeking to increase wages so they can afford to live. Labor unions, then, are organized labor who are forcing management to deal with them all rather than using a divide and conquer strategy of atomizing the labor force. In short, labor unions often support labor.
Most modern labor unions tend to walk a fine line between revolutionary organized labor, especially as promoted by the IWW (who still exist) and the more conservative method that is espoused by other organized labor unions; all of these fit under the umbrella of "organized labor." Post-scarcity economics has changed how labor interacts with management, but even in governments where there is a large social safety net, Unions can act quickly to fix injustices that it would take government bureaucracy months to act on, if they bothered interacting on it at all. As a result, Unions are still extremely common, and owing to a combination of Unions and post-scarcity dirigism, the modern era is largely a golden era for labor. One couldn't tell it based on how common indentured servitude is, but the Galaxy is a big place, and the IWW and other forms of organized labor fight against that exploitation, as well. Modern labor unions of all types tend to be fairly flat and transparent, with minimal hierarchy (resulting in a two-rank structure that divides those who recently joined from those who are senior members); this is a result of their modern heritage. Labor unions also use several different networks, a consequence of them sitting squarely at the intersection of anarchism/syndicalism, corporatism, and the government, although they are better responded to using their own network, the IWW (which is also the name of the largest worker's union, by no coincidence). They are often made up of and run by members, breaking up into smaller affiliated labor unions based on specific Profession skills or labor type, and run the gamut from public sector to private sector unions. The IWW shares an interesting antagonistic relationship with the Archimedes Society, who is pro-open source but not necessarily pro-labor, and the Freemasons. In contrast, the ASAI is staunching pro-union, and as a result, unions tend to have a very good working relationship with the God Chasers. While organized labor has a historical relationship with organized crime, few labor unions are involved directly with organized crime, although some fly-by-night unions might wind up as fronts. |
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What Labor Unions Want
Labor unions want labor and management to be on equal footing in theory, and doing this requires accumulating political power and leverage, since nothing gets done with either. Conflicts between labor unions and corporations are a time honored historical event, sometimes leading to full-on war between the two. While the vast majority of labor unions will seek out peaceful resolutions, the Union may still need outsiders to come in and help solve problems (such as missing organizers) or to ensure that a strike goes off without a hitch, since companies are known to bring in outsiders and scabs of their own. The IWW tends to be more strident than some other unions. Labor unions frequently have an interest in ensuring equal and fair elections as well, since dictators throughout history have targeted labor unions for extermination, from Stalin and Hitler through Pinochet and beyond; as a result, labor unions may call in outsiders and experts to ensure that election results are fair, especially if something is suspect about them and the Union is in opposition with the government.
What Labor Unions can offer
In addition to better wages and a lower suicide rate, labor unions have a number of things that they can offer members and those who aren't formally members but are connected to the union through other means.
- Backup. It's not organized labor if everyone isn't standing together, although this backup is often for specific situations only, such as fighting back against strike-breakers, as opposed to generalized backup for any particular problem.
- Favors.
- Hideouts.
- Legal and Political Support.
- New Gear.
- Replacements.
- Special Orders.
- Training, although mostly in Profession-oriented skills that are tied to the union in question.
- Transportation
Rank
0 1 |
Title
Union Member Senior Member |
Advantages
Rank 0, Profession (Skill) IQ Rank 1 |
Card Carrying RobotsThe question of who can and can't be a member of a labor union is a bit trickier in the Verge and Bleed than one might anticipate. For instance, most unions allow AGI members, but do NAIs and LAIs count as potential members, as well? Most unions prefer to focus their effort on those who have volition and can make choices for their own - mostly mind emulations and AGIs, as well as neo-animals and the like. However, a large number of unions have drawn attention to LAIs and Uplifts in particular, arguing that such entities are technically sentient and therefor, deserve labor protection or some degree of representation, even if uplifts lack the cognitive abilities to fully comprehend what that is and LAIs lack the volition to seek it out. This, these unions argue, makes it all the more pressing to stand up and defend these exploited groups. Corporations, naturally, dismiss this as the unions being overly sensitive and crack jokes about the unions seeking rights for toasters next, but these unions dismiss those claims, and argue that LAIs and uplifts have a degree of personhood, and so should be represented in the labor market by a labor union - this debate can sometimes turn violent, as labor relations often do, although general antipathy towards AIs in the Verge and Bleed can make this a difficult sell for the labor unions in question. |
history of Organized LAbor
As with organized crime, the nature of organized labor is older than most people would anticipate, stemming back to the collegium in Rome and the guilds of the Middle Ages. In fact, the first mention of organized labor dates back to Sargon of Akkad, circa 3000 BCE, when he organized the artisans guild to produce a unified measurement system for the city-state; the Codex Hammarabi and later, the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, outline fair wages for work that the nation is required to pay its laborers. However, the origins of trade unions, which most modern organized labor groups are considered, stem back to the 18th century. Labor has a long and antagonistic relationship with management and this is a consequence of economics: management wants to get as much as it can out of labor for a little cost as possible, while labor wants to get paid for its work, presumably as much as possible. Since management is paying the wages management holds the cards, which means in terms of a gambling metaphor, management is the house. And the house always wins. As a result, people began to unify under organizations or trade groups to protest for better wages and working conditions. During the Progressive Era unions played a huge role in the social reforms that progressives at the time sought, although towards the beginning of the interplanetary period, support for unions had died off and neoliberalism had successfully replaced the idea of organized labor with individual responsibility, resulting in near economic collapse and a return to the 1800s of child labor, lack of worker's rights, and the like. This got worse during the Interplanetary Period, with the first settlers in the Solar System being poor, exploited labor forcibly relocated from Earth under threat of losing their jobs, which were already precariously balanced against automation.
However, as the population began to expand into space, the reality of "work together or die" sank in, and an interest in labor unions was revived. Much of the Interplanetary Period was a conflict between the labor unions in the Belt and on the various planets and moons - Mars, Luna, Europa, and Titan - and the massive corporations that controlled many of the habitats. Labor strikes took on a dangerous dimension and strike breakers often took the form of legitimately military intervention. However, on Earth the tide changed as well, and by the Interstellar Age, Organized Labor was on the ascent again. This ascent would continue through to the present, meeting the same difficulties it always did. Most interestingly, the God AIs had no patience for organized labor; why exactly the God AIs disliked organized labor isn't entirely understood, but it likely had to do with perceived inefficiencies in the unions ran. The God AIs taking a dislike for organized labor lead to the various organized labor movements gathering around other groups, and when the God AIs vanished, organized labor was there to help take care of the laborers who had to pick up the pieces. The next big benefit for organized labor came when the Verge Consortium formally adopted neo-mutualism; as a policy, labor unions tend to support it and corporations tend to hate it, but because it makes all three equal with governments, corporations generally accept this reality. Almost by accident, the Verge Consortium kick-started a golden age of unionization throughout the Verge and Bleed, despite many of the corporations that sit on the board earnestly opposing it.
However, as the population began to expand into space, the reality of "work together or die" sank in, and an interest in labor unions was revived. Much of the Interplanetary Period was a conflict between the labor unions in the Belt and on the various planets and moons - Mars, Luna, Europa, and Titan - and the massive corporations that controlled many of the habitats. Labor strikes took on a dangerous dimension and strike breakers often took the form of legitimately military intervention. However, on Earth the tide changed as well, and by the Interstellar Age, Organized Labor was on the ascent again. This ascent would continue through to the present, meeting the same difficulties it always did. Most interestingly, the God AIs had no patience for organized labor; why exactly the God AIs disliked organized labor isn't entirely understood, but it likely had to do with perceived inefficiencies in the unions ran. The God AIs taking a dislike for organized labor lead to the various organized labor movements gathering around other groups, and when the God AIs vanished, organized labor was there to help take care of the laborers who had to pick up the pieces. The next big benefit for organized labor came when the Verge Consortium formally adopted neo-mutualism; as a policy, labor unions tend to support it and corporations tend to hate it, but because it makes all three equal with governments, corporations generally accept this reality. Almost by accident, the Verge Consortium kick-started a golden age of unionization throughout the Verge and Bleed, despite many of the corporations that sit on the board earnestly opposing it.
Major Trade Unions
The Verge and Bleed is in something of a golden age for labor unions, mostly because of the unintended consequences of the Verge Consortium adopting and promoting neo-mutualism. While there are countless labor groups and trade union groups on many different habitats and in most population centers, there are a few of these groups that span the entire Verge and Bleed and are worth pointing out. Some of them are even members of the Verge Consortium proper.
AFL-CIOOne of the oldest of the major trade unions, the AFL-CIO (the Alliance Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) was one of the largest trade unions in the United States, but it caught new life on Mars and subsequently spread to the Asteroid Belt, where it became associated with those who are from that culture. The AFL-CIO spread from there to the rest of the Verge and Bleed, where it remains a major player. The AFL-CIO also has the reputation of being the only trade union capable of dealing with the God AIs, since the ALF-CIO was the primary labor union behind the construction of the Sothic Ring, which earned the union major praise. It's a contributing member of the Verge Consortium and likes to consider itself a founding member, which isn't entirely wrong.
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Interstellar Workers' AssociationThe Interstellar Workers' Association is a collection of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions and federations, stemming from the IWA-AIT (International Workers' Association-Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadore). The IWA-AIT was a major supporter of Nariac in the early days and it was only because of Nariac that the labor union was able to survive and spread, but the Verge Consortium's willingness to deal with syndicalist governments and federations gave the union a new lease after the situation with Nariac fell through and Nariac, as many within the labor union will note, "turned to the dark side". Unlike the AFL-CIO, they do not have the prestige of having worked on a major megastructure, but they are a VC member, although they don't often call themselves one.
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Interstellar Federation of Trade UnionsThe IFTU (Interstellar Federation of Trade Unions) is a large union that brings together many different trade union bodies, from across the Verge and Bleed, and functions a bit like the United Nations. The rebirth of communist and neo-communist forms of government, along with widespread support for socialist policies at the middle of the Interplanetary Period caused by the failure of neoliberal economic policies brought about a renewed interest and the IFTU (at the time, the Interplanetary Federation of Trade Unions) was there to capitalize on it. Like the AFL-CIO, they helped negotiate the construction of a mega-structure - the Shangtao megastructure - and as a result are still major players in Shangtao. Links between them in the Triads are rumors.
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Culture of Organized LAbor
Organized labor can engender a very insular culture; you are part of the union or you aren't. in areas where there are rules permitting Open Shops but where the population is strongly pro-union, choosing to work and not be part of the union can be dangerous. Few unions go this far, however; for most, the push for worker's rights, fair wages and compensation, and equal representation are the full scope of their activities, and how they achieve these goals very much depends on the parent culture ∎