this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Eh.. having unions sounds good to me.. a white collar worker. I am just not considered part of the labour class by blue collar workers. So it makes me feel isolated. Don't be mistaken, we keyboard thumpers already fight corporate bullshit daily. Th e disdain is from blue collar workers.
Unions can and still lead you to resources and help you unionize. You can't blame blue collar workers.
I didn't blame blue collar workers. I said I was isolated because even though both white collar and blue collar workers sell their labour for a living, somehow we are never accepted as real labour just because the elite among us make $500k a year for instance.
I mean you're still the working class. But a desk job is quite literally not labour. Labour is physical work, specifically lol
I think it's time for you to be introduced to the concept of "cognitive work". We have been doing that for a few thousand years now.
So you, without a tiny bit of irony, would say you sitting at your desk is a labour job?
when tech folk get milked by every other merchant and pay extra, while getting ripped off.. we do feel like daily wage workers.
Labour is physical work but working your eyes and brain is also taxing. It's just a different set of muscles/organs. Sitting at the desk all day is also taxing. it's just not evident enough to people who see an AC and think that's comfortable. It's not healthy long term. Leads to all sorts of health issues.
Many of us tech workers joke that we will make our bag of money, retire, and go do farming. But you must understand why we joke like that.
For a lack of physical activity, desk workers suffer numerous health issues due to sitting all day/lack of movement. We are deprived of natural sunlight and wind in our badly lit offices staring at bright screens.
My point is that I said i felt isolated by blue collar workers not considering tech workers as the same class. You just went ahead and proved my point.
this is one of the reasons you don't see class solidarity from tech workers. The blue collar bunch think we are somehow same as the capitalist class.
Edit:
I also think the definition of labourer is not as myopic as you make it out to be. If one sells their time/works for money then they are labourers. Only those who make their money/capital/resources work for them cannot be considered labourer. Even a manager is a labourer. I would exclude CEOs because they invest and are also board members in their buddies' companies. Their employ is just a facade to maintain control and keep the power "within the family" so to speak.
Labor isn't a class difference.
Blue collar workers get significantly decreased life spans compared to white collar, because we breath in fumes and strain our bodies. That's not the point you want to stand on for them being the same.
maybe try to win over people instead of assuming we don't know how tough it is out there as a blue collar worker? I didn't say your life was a walk in the park. I said we as tech workers are still breaking our health for capitalist profits which we don't see much of. Why do you think I chose an office job? My father was an assembly line worker making automotive starter motors. He came home and slept is all i remember from his working days. You think you should feel proud of someone going away from backbreaking work or do you think less of them because they decided to make their lives a little bit easier?
I don't have a problem with your job being easier. My issue is you white collar workers sitting in your air conditioned rooms and diminishing the difference in body damage and quality of life between white collar and blue collar.
You're not breaking your health. You can just exercise outside of work to stop most of the issues. We don't get that luxury, which is why it stings when you try to say the damage is equivalent.
labor
1 of 3
noun
la·bor ˈlā-bər
plural labors