The goal of forming a union is not just to claw back something that you lost: it’s a method of maintaining a standard relationship between workers and employees. The tablecloth is already being whisked away by tech management and executives as I’ve outlined, and unions will prevent wage stagnation, perk chip, and loss of power from employees that are incredibly valuable overall. It also has the potential to equalize and eliminate the gender wage gap.

In the 1960s when 12-14% yearly raises were common for many industries and minimum wage had nearly triple the buying power of the current minimum wage, many employees would have argued that they didn’t need a union either. In 20 years, tech workers will look back at this point in time as the good old years, and unionizing is the fastest way to ensure that this year isn’t the last, best one for tech workers.