by FW Kristin
In this month’s “News of the Weird,” Bloomberg L.P. is funding. . . labor organizing? Why? What gives?
Let’s take a step back and look at the Medium article “Why We Raised Venture Capital to Help Workers Create Unions” by Jamie Earl White, at:
White explains why he founded Unit (https://unitworkers.com/), a company that “helps” worker organizers by providing an organizing app, educational materials, and “professional staff guidance.” From the moment workers come together, Unit is happy to help them learn the right way to unionize.
Where’s the money in that? It’s funded by venture capital. White explains, “I’m not pretending to be Robin Hood, stealing from the rich—our investors know exactly what they are getting into by funding a worker-centered company. But if our crazy dream to empower worker-organizers fails, it will largely only hurt wealthy individuals and leave foundation funds for other endeavors.”
I don’t think White even noticed that he left out WORKERS as the people who can get hurt by their efforts.
Top on the list of investors was Bloomberg Beta, a venture firm backed by Bloomberg L.P.
They’re not our friends. The Unit website promises to help “improve your working conditions with a union.” That may be true, to a point. But let’s get real: the professional staff guidance won’t help workers shift the balance of power.
The head of Bloomberg Beta, Roy Bahat certainly feels optimistic that unions can be managed. As he told a Reuters reporter, “In the same way that (venture capitalists) overcome lots of obstacles to investing . . . unions are just another aspect of a company.” The article, by the way, is titled “U.S. tech execs hone approach to counter unions amid growing worker interest.”
Foundations, venture firms, and investors—that’s the employing class. They’re not coming in as equals: they’re coming to take power from us and make a profit off our backs. Our old adage, from our Preamble, still stands:
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.
Seattle Industrial Workers of the World 