“All we know about is computers”

Recently I did this little panel discussion at Unionen HQ about union organising in the Swedish tech industry. It was great fun. We talked for ages and everyone said lots of cool stuff. I think this was the most important thing I said.

There is a sort of helplessness… like a learned helplessness. There's this idea that okay, these other workers in this industry that industry and that industry they all got like union deals, collective agreements at their jobs through conflict and so on back in the 20th century. But that was then. This is now. That was those industries. We can't do that because all we know about is computers and that was all a long time ago. It bothers me this idea that “oh we can't do it, we can't have that”.

Yes we can. You can just do it. You just start. Just start. That's all. As long as you start, you can have it. The trick is just to not let anyone talk you out of starting that's all. Because there's a lot of voices out there who would like to talk you out of starting. They'll tell you that's not for us, we can't have that.

Don't let them tell you what you can achieve, you know. You can have this.

I also fell in love with the accidental comedy of this one frame from the video.

Captures perfectly how people are intended to feel when their anti-union employer tells them MBL § 11 negotiations would slow things down too much. Unionen's frihet.unionen.se campaign is worth a look if that sounds like your workplace BTW.