The Union
The Amalgamated Union of Orbital and Interstellar Engineering Workers, Fabricators, and Associated Trades. So, that's that then.
The Full Name
The Amalgamated Union of Orbital and Interstellar Engineering Workers, Fabricators, and Associated Trades.
Colloquially, and inevitably, known simply as “The Union.”
The Founding
- Grimsby Station. A unanimous vote of GOW yard workers.
The founding charter was ratified and accompanied by a brief speech from the first Shop Steward, Dorothy Huang, who said simply:
“Right. That’s that sorted. Back to work.”
The motto adopted at that meeting:
“So, that’s that then.”
It has remained unchanged for over two centuries. Every subsequent attempt to update it has been voted down by workers who feel it covers the essentials. A 2347 proposal to change it to “Workers of the Cosmos, Unite in Solidarity and Collective Bargaining” was defeated by a margin of 4,212 to 3. The three dissenting votes were later found to have been cast by a malfunctioning ballot terminal.
So, that was that.
What The Union Does
The Union represents GOW’s workforce — the engineers, fabricators, welders, fitters, riggers, and associated trades who build, maintain, and repair starships across twelve orbital yards and seven star systems. Its role is, in theory, to negotiate with management on matters of pay, conditions, safety, and the general well-being of the workforce.
In practice, the relationship between The Union and GOW management is more nuanced than the textbook adversarial model suggests. This is a company whose identity flows from the workshop floor upward. The people The Union represents are, in many cases, the same people whose institutional memory is the company. When a yard foreman with thirty years’ experience says a schedule is unrealistic, management listens — not because The Union requires it, but because ignoring thirty years of experience is the kind of decision that results in hull plating that doesn’t quite fit and schedules that overrun by exactly the amount the foreman predicted.
This doesn’t mean the relationship is without friction. Pay negotiations are genuine negotiations. Working condition disputes are real disputes. There have been strikes — short, purposeful, resolved. The Union’s approach has always mirrored Huang’s founding speech: sort it out, then get back to work.
The Role of Tea
Union meetings are conducted with tea. This is not negotiable. The suggestion that a 2289 workplace mediation session be conducted over coffee was met with the kind of silence that, in GOW cultural terms, constitutes a formal objection.
Tea was served. The mediation proceeded. The matter was resolved.
Safety
If there is one area where The Union’s influence is unambiguous, it is safety. The Quad-Seal Standard was an engineering decision, but it was The Union that ensured it was applied universally, without exception, across every GOW facility. The union safety representatives have the authority to halt work on any project they deem unsafe — an authority that management has, to its credit, never attempted to override.
The 2120 decompression incident predates The Union’s founding by eighty years, but it lives in the union’s collective memory as vividly as if it happened last week. Every safety representative learns the story. Every new delegate is given a copy of the original incident report.
The report is three pages long. It is very calm. It is very detailed. It is, in its quiet way, one of the most persuasive documents in GOW’s archives.
The Union Today
In 2426, The Union represents approximately 340,000 GOW employees across all facilities. It remains one of the most effective labour organisations in human space — measured not by the drama of its disputes but by their rarity. Problems are caught early, discussed practically, and resolved with the minimum of fuss.
Dorothy Huang would approve.
Keep flyin’.