Wired notes a very odd idea floating around: unionizing bloggers?

In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.

See, there's a basic problem here - a union normally organizes a set of workers in an industry in order to gain bargaining power with an employer (never mind the politics that comes with that - it's not relevant to my point here). In terms of blogging, who's the employer? Who would be the target of collective bargaining? Here's the problem, from the story:

Few bloggers are paid for their posts, and even fewer are able to make a living doing the work. But many say they often devote as much energy and time to their online musings as they do to their salaried careers.

Which is the gist of the problem. Say I started a blog on Civ IV (an idea I've tossed around). Who exactly would I be bargaining with - myself? Even this blog - sure, I work for Cincom, and this blog is largely about Cincom Smalltalk - but it's part of my normal communications work, not some separate part of the job.

I just don't get it :)

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