[RHat]

I think their would still be some unions I have not read up a ton on everything in the Shadowrun univers but I think you would still have unions in places like the ports that ship goods in and out or the airports or public transportation. Some of the few things like that that all of the mega corps would use not to say that some of them would still have their own docs or airports that are not in the union but I would think some things like that would still be unioninzed.

I doubt it.  There's no reason the megas wouldn't just buy up any unionized ports and get rid of the unions.  And anyone who doesn't like it can go live in the Barrens.

Obviously the Megacorps are very powerful and have their hands in just about everything, but they haven't taken over a lot of things...Governments, Organized Crime, Some Universities, and I'm sure there are still unions around. Unions have been doing Shadowrunning tactics before the Megacorps even came around. They wouldn't go away easy.

The fact that they haven't done anything about the existence of things like governments is due to the fact that they don't want to.  Contrast with unions, where they do want to do something about it.

Remember, the Megas control, amongst other things, the highest court there is.  Unions wouldn't really have a viable means of defending their own existence.

[Namikaze]

I don't think RHat's saying there are no unions at all.  I think he's just reinforcing the dystopian dynamic of the setting.  In most places with a strong AA or AAA corp presence, unions will be all but nonexistent.  Anywhere else, they can still thrive.

[RHat]

I don't think RHat's saying there are no unions at all.  I think he's just reinforcing the dystopian dynamic of the setting.  In most places with a strong AA or AAA corp presence, unions will be all but nonexistent.  Anywhere else, they can still thrive.

That's basically the trick - but it means, too, that other than places like the NAN and the Tirs, where the corps really do have a diminished influence, you're not gonna see much in the way of major industrial unions.  Major industrial or labour unions probably aren't much of a thing; those that are around are going to be small, too small to give the corps trouble (and the moment they got big enough to be a problem, they'd be gone).

[Namikaze]

Very true.  One could argue that the dragons are the real power players, but one could easily make a case for the mega corps.  And considering one of the megas is actually controlled by a dragon, I think unions don't stand a chance against that kind of might.

There are, however, many policlubs that are very powerful.  Human is managed to get Brackhaven in power, along with a couple UCAS senators and such.  The head of the UCAS sector in Denver is a raging Human is member.

And Human is is certainly not the only policlub with clout.  Mothers of Metahumanity and Sons of Sauron both worked hard to get Proposition 23 passed, the whole events of which were basically a policlub war.  The corps mostly stayed out of that whole affair.

So there are definitely options here.  Don't pigeonhole yourself into Mr. Johnson needing to be union-affiliated.  Mr. Johnson might even be working against his own organization, perhaps to clear the way for someone he likes to take power.

[Oski]

I don't know of any unions established in the more recent Shadowrun timeline books, but something to bear in mind is that corporations are themselves nations.  That means that a given corporation might have some sort of corrupt image of unions.  You could consider some of the more "liberal" AA corporations as possibilities for this.  Maybe Gaiatronics or Draco Foundation or one of the newsnets.  But what I'd probably consider experimenting with is Ares Corporation.  Why?  Based in Detroit, and incorporating GM under the Ares umbrella, there could be some sort of corrupt, twisted, and distorted remnant of the original auto workers union working there.  That could be interesting to play with.  I don't know whether the union would be relegated to GM alone.  Law enforcement is well known to have unions, so that union culture could then extend to Knight Errant.  Would GM and Knight Errant then have the same union under Ares?  Probably not.  So you've got these two unions under Ares, each twisted in its own right, and probably carrying on petty squabbles against one another at the same time.

The effectiveness of these unions would have to be questioned.  Most Ares employees have absolutely no options or mobility.  A KE guard can't necessarily pack up and go to Lone Star.  Or can they?  There have been instances of security forces strikes in Shadowrun history, so that would indicate some union presence (although I don't think Lone Star or KE have ever gone on strike) and in the changeover of contracts from Lone Star to KE in Seattle, KE picked up many Lone Star officers.  So there is some mobility, at least when Ares is involved as the acquirer.

There are definitely options to explore and imagine with it.

[redwolf]

a cop union? that what gave lone star the law enforcement contract in seattle (the polic  union strike)

[Oski]

a cop union? that what gave lone star the law enforcement contract in seattle (the polic  union strike)

Correct.  Which is one of the prior strikes I was alluding to.  Now, the police union strike leading to the Lone Star contract, that was actual Seattle police.  So a public entity.  That handover to Lone Star could be cited as one of the defining steps towards the corporate-dominated world Shadowrun becomes.  So it's an open question whether Lone Star, KE, and other private police forces would also have unions.  In my own campaign, I think it's doubtful actually.  But one could definitely create a game world where the strong history of law enforcement unions carries over to Lone Star and KE, albeit in an uber-corrupt manner where the unions are more beholden to management (with perhaps some influence from criminal syndicates and such) than to the workers they represent.

[Bushw4cker]

Thanks for the Replies. Especially Oski

[Reaver]

Unions have basically been crippled by the extra-territoriality of the Megas.

Thanks to the Corps being able to write and enforce their own laws on their property, you can bet Unions were the first thing that was outlawed.

So, any unions in direct working relationships with any Mega is soon going to be crushed. This means Industrial Unions, Labour Unions, and others would be basically driven into nothing through some simple clauses ("No organized Labour employed", "right to work", or other slogans and propaganda...)

Now, the Civil union (that represents city and government workers) would probably still be around, but would actually have been diminished in power a fair bit by the privatization of civil services (garbage removal, etc).