I created a union management software
I have been a union member, organizer, president, and currently the MEC level grievance chair and technology chair for an airline affiliated union. When I took over as grievance chair, there was no single source of truth. Everything lived with the predecessor, and the most recent predecessor was no longer contactable.
I tried to find solutions but everything was super expensive and old or geared towards sales and generic. We began using Monday.com as quick solution, but even this is expensive, and doesn’t provide all of the features needed, and can be quite complicated.
I began working a long time ago on a replacement. I’ve created a new tool that manages member records, grievances, investigatory representation, disciplines, and even governance meetings.
I made my pricing transparent (most tools hide their pricing because they don’t want to tell you it costs $5,000 a year minimum). I didn’t want to charge per user login. Unions bring in money on the number of dues-paying members they have, not the number of reps they have. So my pricing is based on member records. I didn’t want to lock important features behind paid upgrades, so all features are included at the same price. I offer an extensive (unpublished) needs-based discount for smaller unions and locals.
Yes I would like to make a living providing this service, but I do not want to extract capital just because I can. Unions need to survive and they need tools that can allow them to close the technology gap between management and the union.
My mission was to build something modern and affordable. I know I could charge more, but why should I?
I didn’t post about it on r/union because I did not want to give the wrong impression. I am not really trying to advertise, I want opinions, validation, critique. Do other people suffer from similar frustrations of managing grievances? What type of tools would benefit you? Etc.
For reference, https://repliaos.com is my product.
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