Since 90% of you weren’t here at the time, I thought it would be interesting to look back at a segment originally published 3 years ago today. It was so long ago, Substack hadn’t even introduced video yet, so I linked to the YouTube version at the time. Yes, this is actually my 5th anniversary publishing on the platform . Now, this video segment resides here natively as well [side note: this will be the 2,145th post published to Indie Media Today in those 5 years].

In the face of massive tech layoffs so far in 2026 (almost 100k workers YTD), I thought this would be an appropriate topic to review.

Article covered:

* Layoffs Ravage Tech: Do Tech Workers Need Unions?: James Baker, Socialist Alternative

* https://www.socialistalternative.org/2023/04/10/layoffs-ravage-tech-do-tech-workers-need-unions/

What did we get right, what did we get wrong and what’s changed since then? We’ve seen a big effort from big tech to resist unions. Here are a few big stories from tech workers labor since, and it hasn’t been pretty on the employee side…

* Alphabet laid off the team in Austin fighting for a union at YouTube Music (May 1, 2024).

* Amazon Labor Union tried to go independent and folded into the Teamsters. I covered that EXTENSIVELY at this newsletter. Even though this was for the warehouse workers, Amazon is still a tech company.

* Apple is closing the retail store where the first successful vote for a union occurred (Towson Center, MD)

* Alphabet Workers’ Union has been touting their accomplishments - here are a few:

* Ending Caste Discrimination at Google

* Alphabet workers organize to remove toxic managers

* Google Raters win first ever pay raise

For those who are unfamiliar with the history, “How Did We Miss That” is the predecessor to IndieNewsNow LIVE. I produced the show with Reef Breland most Sunday nights for 3+ years prior to November 2025, when I moved it to Tuesday nights, changed the name of the show and went solo.

Reef and I still host “Boats Smashing Into Other Boats” on Sunday nights over on IndieNews Network (INN).

Hi! I’m Indie. “Indie” is not just a person - but a persona and a project representing a fiercely independent, anti-corporate media operation. It’s the voice of a politically unaligned critic and curator who exists outside the traditional Left-Right duopoly. The mission is to seek a trustworthy alternative set of sources apart from the mainstream media (MSM) by championing and amplifying truly independent journalists and perspectives that are corporate-free.

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