Union organizing is moving out of factories and public offices and into gig platforms, game studios and other workplaces with no shared site or single boss. Overall membership is flat, so unions are going where the workers are. For HR leaders, the practical question is how ready your people practices are for that shift.
Picture a food delivery rider. No office, no manager she has ever met, and an app that decides her next order and, sometimes, whether she keeps getting orders at all. Where does she take a complaint? Increasingly, the answer is a union built for people exactly like her.
What “beyond traditional workplaces” means
The classic union model assumes one employer, one site and a stable group of employees who vote in an election. Newer organizing breaks each of those assumptions.
- Platform and gig workers are often classified as independent, yet one company’s algorithm shapes their work.
- Industries with no union history, such as video games, are now seeing organizing drives.
Some of these unions also skip the studio-by-studio model. United Videogame Workers-CWA, launched in March 2025 as an industry-wide union that workers join directly, so a developer doesn’t need a majority at her own studio to belong.
Why union organizing is shifting now
The headline numbers look quiet. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a US union membership rate of about 10% in 2025, up from 9.9% in 2024, with 5.9% of private-sector workers unionized against 32.9% in the public sector. The agency also warned that a federal shutdown disrupted data collection, so the 2025 figures aren’t strictly comparable with earlier years. You can read the Bureau of Labor Statistics union membership release for the full breakdown.
The details underneath are more interesting. The Economic Policy Institute calculated that 16.5 million US workers were represented by a union in 2025, the highest number on record, and that coverage among workers under 45 rose by 428,000. The same analysis estimated that more than 50 million non-union workers would join a union if they could.
Put those together. A private-sector rate under 6% leaves little room to grow inside the old strongholds. Younger workers are the ones joining, and they work in places the old model never reached. Researchers who studied unions in Ireland and Slovenia found a real tension: unions worry about eroding the benefits of employee status, yet shrinking membership makes showing relevance to non-standard workers more urgent than ever. Organizing beyond the traditional workplace is the way out.
Where unions are organizing
Gig and platform work
On 12 June 2026, the International Labour Conference adopted ILO Convention No. 193 on Decent Work in the Platform Economy, passing with 406 votes in favour, 8 against and 36 abstentions. It applies to all digital labour platforms and platform workers, whether or not they are in an employment relationship. It is also the first ILO convention to address algorithmic management, requiring platforms to tell workers and their representatives how automated systems are used in monitoring and decisions. The ILO’s announcement sets out the details.
Not everyone cheered. The US representative at the conference urged caution about prescriptive binding regulation in fast-evolving areas of the economy. And a convention binds no one until a country ratifies it. Governments have 12 months to put it before their national authorities, and each decides on ratification independently.
India shows how this plays out on the ground. The Code on Social Security, 2020 came into force on 21 November 2025 and defined gig and platform workers for the first time. Registration is slow, though. The labour ministry reported around 5.12 lakh platform workers registered on the eShram portal by 1 December 2025, against a NITI Aayog estimate of 7.7 million gig workers back in 2020-21.
Worker-led unions are filling the gap. The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, founded in 2021 by workers themselves, has more than 10,000 members. Its leadership says the social security rules don’t go far enough and that workers still want a minimum wage and a formal employer-employee relationship. One of its own surveys found that 66% of workers rate demands aimed at both platforms and governments as highly important.
Tech and video game workers
Game developers spent years thinking of themselves as creatives, not workers. Organizers say that is changing. They describe workers who support unions in principle but don’t see organizing as applying to them, and the pitch now centers on crunch schedules, job instability and pay. At the 2026 Game Developers Conference festival, United Videogame Workers-CWA launched several organizing campaigns and promoted a Game Workers’ Bill of Rights, a worker-written set of principles on fair treatment and conditions.
What HR leaders should do about it
I’d drop the idea that a union drive means somebody failed. More often it points to a gap in worker voice, and you can close a gap before it becomes a campaign. This is general information, not legal advice, and the rules on employer conduct during organizing differ sharply between countries, so talk to employment counsel before acting.
- Count everyone who does work for you: Contractors, freelancers and platform-sourced talent shape your culture whether or not they’re on payroll. In India, the Social Security Code makes this a compliance question too, since workers must register to get benefits.
- Audit your automated decisions: Scheduling tools, performance scores and account deactivations are exactly what the ILO standard targets. If you can’t explain how one works to the person it affects, fix that first.
- Ask people what they think, and mean it: A confidential survey only works if results lead to visible change. That is the logic behind the Amazing Workplaces certification, where an organization has to score 70% or higher on an anonymous employee survey to qualify.
- Train managers before the first conversation happens: Frontline managers are the ones who hear the early complaints. Give them clear guidance on what to escalate and what not to say.
Frequently asked questions
What is union organizing?
Union organizing is the process workers use to build collective support for forming or joining a union. It usually runs from conversations and sign-ups through formal recognition or an election and, if successful, into bargaining.
Can gig workers join a union?
Yes. Gig and platform workers in many countries have formed or joined unions even when classified as independent contractors. Whether those unions can bargain collectively depends on national law, which is still catching up.
Why are unions organizing outside traditional workplaces?
Their strongholds are shrinking as a share of the workforce, while growing numbers of workers sit outside the standard employer-employee model. Reaching those workers is how unions stay relevant.
Does the new ILO platform convention apply to my company?
Not directly. It binds only countries that ratify it. It does signal where national rules on algorithmic management and platform work are heading, so it’s worth planning for now.
