"There Are No Shortcuts in Organizing, but Technology Sure Does Help" by

## Overview

Shane and Vicki, software engineers at the New York Times, describe how they organized the largest union of tech workers in the country over two and a half years. While emphasizing that "there are no shortcuts in organizing"—requiring thousands of one-on-one conversations—they showcase how custom-built technology provided strategic speed boosts to their campaign.

## Key Technologies Built

**Bubble Chart Generator**: The team created a visualization tool to map union support across the organization. Starting with a spreadsheet tracking 600+ employees using a five-point assessment system (ranging from "all in" to "anti-union"), Shane wrote Python processors to feed data into D3 visualizations with color coding (green for pro-union, red for anti-union, gray for unassessed). Coworker Shea significantly improved the design by removing manager nodes, making the chart far more readable. This eventually evolved into an online interface for uploading CSVs.

**Website**: Built with Next.js and Netlify CMS, the website enabled both developers and non-developers to contribute content. It used static site generation deployed to Netlify's CDN for global availability and speed. The CMS proved accessible enough that people without coding experience could edit testimonials, FAQs with markdown support, and other content.

**Slack Avatar Generator**: Olav created a minimal web app (just static files, no server/database) that let members upload photos and automatically add a union frame. The simplicity sparked organic collaboration—other engineers and designers jumped in unprompted to enhance the tool, enabling live previews of different photos. During remote-only work, seeing widespread adoption in Slack channels became a powerful morale booster and visibility tool.

**Live Vote Count Tracker**: For the NLRB vote, the team added a real-time vote counter to their website using Firebase Realtime Database. During the actual vote, manually typed values were updated as envelopes were read (Shane admits to making one typo that showed they won by three times their actual margin). The tracker included confetti animation, activated by clicking a Tada emoji.

## Technical Approaches

The team prioritized accessibility and ease of contribution. They chose Next.js because most developers at the Times already knew React. Netlify CMS provided a user-friendly interface for non-technical contributors. All code was eventually open-sourced in a GitHub org for the News Guild of New York.

Organizing challenges shaped technical decisions: they manually collected employee names via a "quilting bee" Zoom calls rather than scraping the internal directory (to avoid drawing management attention prematurely). The Amazon Bessemer warehouse example illustrated why accurate org charts matter—a 4x discrepancy in expected warehouse size nearly derailed their campaign.

## Campaign Phases and Outcomes

The campaign involved three main phases: Stage 0 (building an organizing committee of ~10% of the eventual unit), pre-public organizing (conversations with everyone), and public operations (ongoing steward-led dialogue). Management declined voluntary recognition, so a formal NLRB vote occurred in early 2022, ultimately succeeding. The union then transitioned to contract negotiations.

## Key Takeaways

Despite all technological tools, the speakers emphasize that relationships built through thousands of direct conversations remain irreplaceable. Technology accelerates but cannot substitute human connection. Practical advice for remote organizing includes cold-calling with scripts, starting conversations with intrigue ("something not work-related"), and providing structure ("lesson plans" with themes and talking points) to empower less-experienced organizers. The union's data on member support is kept private for strategic reasons, especially during contract bargaining when priorities matter.