Oh, do you honestly think such an "secretive, radical union cell" funded by "dark money" would be allowed to exist and interface with corporates? (words in scare-quotes would be how this would be framed by employers and the media - they may or may not throw in foreign funding, Venezuela or China could get name-dropped with zero evidence).

It doesn’t have to be secret, just your membership is secret.

It can have open plan offices in a cool neighborhood, pay politicians and all.

Just have centralized Emlpoyers information management system where information about employers, like salaries they pay business they do, the good and the bad to work there etc.

So when you are getting a job you apply to your not-union and they tell you what to expect and how much to ask. No more guesswork.

It’s like an HR that works for you. So it’s BR, businesses resources.

Then the companies begin to fire employees that they find are part of this system and hire organizations like the Pinkertons to infiltrate and destroy your business resource system.

They can fight back, of course but trying to destroy another company’s systems sounds super illegal.

Fine, throw a bug bounty program.

So it's like Glassdoor or Salary.com? That's not a union, that's not HR, that's not armed protection.

Are unions armed protection?

Anyway, the idea is to have a coordinator that work on your benefit. Companies, even the large ones are simply people coordinated by the capital owners.

The not-union is a coordinator for the people who are not the capital owners but those who deal with the capital owners.

The aim is to assist for a fair deal through information, not to extort the capital owners.

So...... a union?

> The aim is to assist for a fair deal through information, not to extort the capital owners.

This sounds similar to "the aim is to be good, not bad".

Your assertion does not lie on facts but on your personal moral interpretation and even prejudice against a label.

Unions are organizations whose aim is to represent workers and defend their best interests with the company's representatives.

Sometimes the company's goals are in direct opposition to the workers's best interests. How do you expect the negotiations to go if the company plans to strong-arm and coherce their workers into submissions.

Well, this is not a union therefore doesn't match all the features and objectives. The not-union aims to relieve inherit disadvantages of individuals v.s. corporations while preserving individual freedoms and free market dynamics. Just like companies coming together to fix a price and specs of their products thus leaving consumers with no options, workers coming together to force their own preferences by leaving companies with no options is also unacceptable.

If the unions actually do the things that you describe and people are happy with it, they should opt out for unions.

"Are unions armed protection?"

Historically, yes, sometimes.

Sounds like a talent agent. Sectors that utilize talent agents often still have strong collective bargaining agreements and unions in place. Part of the power of a union is the ability to deprive a business or industry of labor. A talent agent alone does not provide such leverage.

I think you just described a union

See, it's not a union. Unions are apparently uncool in the USA. Think of it as Musk inventing the Tube by removing the engineeringly silly parts of the Hyperloop and adding a sharing economy feature to the result :)

Why would you share your "not-union" membership with your employer? Instead, use it as a coordinator between your peers to prevent being underpaid and overworked do to information disparity you normally have in your relationship with you employer and if you get screwed it turns out you have access to lawyers.

Something of that sort.

The issue is that being in a "not-union" isn't a protected class, so you could probably get fired for it after your employer sent the "not-Pinkertons" to do some intel.

To prevent this, you'd have to get your "not-Union" to either have huge solidarity, or lobby the government to make that a protected class.

Maybe if you went for the first you could make a song about it, how about "Solidarity not-for-finite-periods-of-time"?

Why would they fire or investigate you? It’s not like you’re organizing strikes or anything like that. You are simply benefiting of the same knowledge that companies have to have a fairer deal.

How are you going to negotiate without striking (or threatening a strike)? Why would the company care that you know you're being underpaid if you're still going to do your job either way?

If you’re underpaid it means you can get a better deal somewhere else.

You’re going to negotiate with the knowledge in par with the company that is interested in having you.

Knowledge is power. - France is bacon.

> If you’re underpaid it means you can get a better deal somewhere else.

Unless companies conspire not to hire you in order to depress wages.

https://variety.com/2017/biz/news/disney-settlement-wage-fix...

Individuals make their ways up and down the stack all the time. This doesn't change the income distribution. [0] Knowledge isn't the only power. Solidarity is also power, and it can change the income distribution. Unfortunately, knowledge of this has been lost.

[0] https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

Because you leveling the playing field is a net loss for them. Companies like to use their information and coordination advantage, and exploit it to their benefit.

It's why some companies will try to find ways to fire you if you share your salary.

I guess they’re free to try fight it. It doesn’t mean it’s helpless case. Measures and countermeasures, businesses as usual.

Except one party is a billion dollar business, and the other party is a single worker relying on an hourly wage job.

Without the threat of collective action, the idea is toothless.

Thanks to the not-union, the other party is not simply a single worker relying on an hourly wage job. Instead , the worker knows what can reasonably get from the company and if the company wrongs the worker, the not-union has the resources to help thanks to the subscription fees collected from the large number of members(potentially billions just like the companies).

If you're simply going to accept the company's employment offer, why do you need the external organization?

You aren’t simply going to accept any offer, you are going to negotiate a fair one thanks to the intelligence you obtain from not-union.

Without leverage that comes from collective bargaining, how does the intelligence change your negotiating position?

It’s not about extortion, it’s about fair deal. The knowledge is useful as market research, in a similar way knowing rent prices in the neighborhood when renting.

In the current situation, companies have access to this and employees don’t.

Characterizing collective bargaining as extortion is part of the problem.

So it's like a union... but without any democratic control by the members, just a company trying to maximize profit from it's "customers" instead?

What problem with unions are you trying to solve here?

It’s with democratic control and not for profit, unless of course you vote for it to try to maximize profit.

It’s owned by a trust or something similar.

A secret union. Would be labelled terrorists in no time flat.

>work is just a business deal and wouldn't be possible for employees create some kind of company that deals with the companies they are employed?

have you read Godfather?

Please explain?

He's referring to organized crime/racketeering. Your 'not-union' scheme seems like organized crime if you squint a bit and imagine that it would be backed up with violence.

Populist tough-guy shakes down businesses to get back at The Man or some such.

Plus unions in the US have often been infiltrated by organized crime.

This is a not-union, it doesn’t have those elements at all. It has a fancy office, a responsive website that nags you to use the app instead, and blogs about how they implemented the latest FUD and does have open source projects.

It has a Twitter savvy CEO a it’s mission is to make the world a better place.

Pimps basically play the same role as unions.

Congratulations, you've invented the Molly Maguires.