Show HN: Organize – open-source E2EE app to help you form your own labor union
Hey HN,
I've been working on Organize for a few years now, and I figured May Day/International Workers' Day would be a good time to show it off. I'm here in the comments if you have any questions!
Problem:
According to recent polls, 70% of American workers support unions [1], and 50% say they'd join one if they could [2], but only 10% are actually in one [3]. That translates to 60 million US workers who want to join a union but haven't yet [4].
Solution:
Organize is a self-service guide for workplaces that are too small to attract a full-time organizer. 85% of US firms have less than 20 employees [5], which is often just too small to justify the full attention of a professional organizer.
Inspired by the winning strategies of veteran organizer Jane McAlevey [6], Organize helps you recruit the support of a supermajority of your coworkers, so that you can crush your certification election and win big when you negotiate your first contract.
Tech:
Organize is an MIT-licensed React Native client and Ruby on Rails backend that runs on a Raspberry Pi 5. It has a simple deploy system based on Docker Compose for now, but I'd love to switch to Kamal at some point. PRs welcome!
With the exception of a single unencrypted email per workplace organization (Org), all user-generated text within the app is end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) to minimize the value of a data breach. Each Org has its own group key, created by the Org's founder and shared through the QR membership codes discussed below.
Joining an Org involves scanning the QR membership code of any existing Org member (see [7] for a video). This builds up a web of trust via face-to-face, in-person interaction. However, the QR code really just contains a short-lived JWT and the Org's group key. As such, it's ultimately possible to invite people remotely by crafting your own JWT or sharing a screenshot of your QR code. Still, the "default mode" of in-person scanning encourages a degree of phishing resistance.
Members of every new union must determine what they think is worth fighting for. So Organize has an HN-style discussion tab with upvotes and downvotes to help surface shared grievances and come to a consensus on which demands are most important to each individual Org.
Democratic decision making strengthens unions by building trust between rank-and-file members and their officers. So Organize makes it easy to vote on anything. In addition to yes/no, multiple choice, and N-of-M voting, Organize also helps Org members elect their officers (e.g. president, VP, treasurer, etc). In addition to their real-world responsibilities, elected officers also act as Org admins within the app. For example certain officers can moderate discussions. This is handy since the E2EE makes it impossible for me to act as a moderator.
Lastly, before any new union can become certified by the National Labor Relations Board, its members must affirm that they truly want to be represented by their union for the purpose of collective bargaining. Traditionally this involves dealing with physical index cards or paper petitions and manual data entry. Recently this involves using Google Forms or email (read Gmail) to collect signatures, despite the risk of handing over all this personally identifiable information (PII) to 3rd parties. So Organize makes it easy to sign and collect union cards without giving me any of your PII, thanks to the E2EE.
Links:
- iOS app: https://apps.apple.com/app/organize-modern-labor-unions/id67...
- Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.getorganiz...
- "How to Organize" handbook/blog: https://getorganize.app/blog
- Client repo: https://github.com/High5Apps/organize-rn
- Backend repo: https://github.com/High5Apps/organize-backend
I've always thought union organizing was ripe for some good ol' tech innovation. It seems to be run in such an old school way, right now.
Very cool idea, and seems very flushed out already! Best of luck, and I will let all my friends who complain about unfair working conditions know about this!
Thanks! But I want to emphasize that Organize isn't meant to replace old school organizing. Rather it's meant to expand those proven techniques to a larger audience that can't be served by the limited number of existing organizers (i.e. workplaces too small to attract a professional organizer).
Plus, it's helpful to remember that organizing isn't only for workplaces trying to improve poor conditions. It's also for workplaces with good conditions that want an assurance that the company can't unilaterally take them away! This is something many if us in tech jobs forget until things like layoffs or forced return-to-office give us a reminder.
Very interesting project. How do you plan on growing the business?
Right now I'm just focusing on finding a good first user/workplace. So I'm reaching out to groups that might be interested like r/union, in-person May Day events, and local organizers who already have too much on their plates.
Is there anything frustrating about your workplace that you wish you could change? If so, have you ever considered forming your own union? Many of the workplace issues we feel powerless to change alone become much easier to tackle together.
After working out the kinks with my first workplace, I'm hoping things will spread through word-of-mouth, but I'll likely need to do some local flyering and advertising too. One nice thing about a Organize is that it could theoretically be sustainable with "only" a few thousand monthly active users!
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