Hi all, I'd like honest feedback from people who have actually organized. About me: I'm an engineer with PhD, not an organizer, and my day job is far from the everyday reality of most people. That said, I have long been frustrated with the inequality in our society and wish I could contribute at least a small part in making it better. Over the past several months I have been working on a web app, CollectivvsA, aimed at facilitating the initial engagement with organizing. The concept is simple: it is a space for employees with a verified company account to chat anonymously and test the waters for collective action without fear of being singled out. It covers a very first stage when people may be reluctant to engage publicly; it doesn't replace one-to-one conversation and, if there is enough indicated support for forming the union, the authorization card signing and NLRB fillings happen outside the app, we provide a simple guide for those steps and directions for reaching out to a union.

Privacy is front and center: data is encrypted, we require the bare minimum to verify that all the people in the group are part of the same workplace (so you are not in a chatroom with strangers external to the workplace, or bots, or with multiple accounts created by the same person) while never storing data that can be reversed to identify the users, and once the initiative closes all the data are crypto shredded (fancy term for meaning really gone and unreadable even from stray copies that may remain in datacenters). The initiative is closed either by the organizer (person that started it) or after 2 weeks of inactivity, so an initiatives that just dies for lack of engagement doesn't linger long.

The questions for organizers here are:

• Is this something that would have ever been useful to you?
• Is there something that would really discourage you from using this?
• Any other comments, critiques, suggestions are all welcome as well.

Right now the app requires employment verification through a company email or a company Google or Microsoft account, which leaves most retail, food service and warehouse workers out for now. I'm brainstorming ways to make it work for people without a company email. The tricky part is verifying that someone really works there without storing anything that can be reversed to identify them, because the app needs both: a space for coworkers only, and nothing on our side that links a person to what they do in the app.

So for those of you in workplaces without personal company emails, a few additional questions:

• What app does your employer use for schedules or pay: When I Work, Homebase, 7shifts, or something else?
• Does it send you emails at your personal address?
• Do you have any work login, like Microsoft Teams or a training site, even without a work email?

Happy to answer anything in the comments. And thank you for engaging!

The author of the linked PEWA (Public Education Workers' Alliance) article makes the clear case that building union power in the workplace (and connecting everyday cost of living issues with the system of capitalism and imperalism) starts with building connections and relationship in the workplace.

Enjoy (and subscribe to the website if you enjoy the article to stay up to date with new articles when they come out).