Why the balance of power in tech is shifting to workers

According to the project “Collective Action in Technology,” which tracks the work of industry groups, every year since the strike More workers have been seen speaking out. Big tech’s image as friendly giants has been shattered. Part of the strike’s legacy, Stapleton said, was “to help people see the gap between how companies present themselves and how they run businesses, and what the capitalist machine is and does.”

In 2021, the absolute number of collective actions declined. But that’s because the nature of these operations has changed, said JS Tan and Nataliya Nedzhvetskaya, who helped run the collective operations in the technical archives.

“Compared to 2018, I think what organizing workers means and what comes with it has become more realistic,” said Nedzhvetskaya, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley. “One theory for why we’re seeing this base building is because people realize it’s something that’s hard to do alone.”

Last year, instead of writing an open letter (which could be a fairly quick process), workers started pushing for unions, a notoriously long ordeal. But creating unions – even if they are Solidarity with less legal protections – is an investment in the future. According to an analysis of collective action in technology, 12 skilled worker unions were formed in 2021, more than in any previous year. Tan, who originally conceived the dossier, said most of these unions are located in smaller outlets with fewer organizational barriers. But workers from big companies are also getting in on the action.

“If the goal is to hold these big tech companies accountable,” said Tan, himself a former tech worker who helped organize within Microsoft, “it’s not just one of these groups of workers that can do it. This is their combined strength.”

Fighting “Digital Slavery”

Nader Awaad knows where to find Uber drivers with free time. He approached them and waited for customers as they hung out in the car park outside London’s bustling airport. Awaad handed them a flyer and talked to them about unionizing, patiently listening to them make the same complaints that he echoed throughout the industry.

When you think of technicians, gig drivers aren’t the white-collar software developers you think of, but they make up a large and growing pool of tech employees. Over the past year, they’ve become more vocal about several basic demands: higher pay, more security, and a way to recourse if they’ve been unfairly kicked out of a company’s app .inside UK and South Africa, the driver has taken Uber to court. In the United States, DoorDash driver Unprecedented nationwide strike over slump in wages.exist Hongkong and China Mainland, food delivery workers organize strikes to boost wages and safety.exist Croatia, Uber drivers held press conferences and went on strike, saying their payments were late. “We feel like digital slaves,” said one union member.

Awaad started driving for Uber in 2019 after stepping down from his previous role as a senior manager. He immediately sensed the industry’s problems. “It reminds me of reading Charles Dickens,” he said. “The level of exploitation. The level of deprivation. I said, ‘I can’t believe it.'” Soon, he realized he wasn’t alone. Another driver he met at Heathrow Airport expressed sympathy.He looked around for a union to join, and by April 2019, he was a member of the union United Private Car Rental Driver, a branch of the British Independent Workers’ Union. He is now the elected chair.

His local fleet of about 900 drivers echoes these global issues, and he helped organize pickets and strikes, but he said the companies refused to have a public conversation. Drivers have to be on the road for 12 or 14 hours a day to make enough money, Awaad said.

in a Iconic case In February last year, the UK Supreme Court ruled that drivers were entitled to holidays, pensions and minimum wages. Some unions say Uber has avoided these new obligations, but the European Commission has also taken note of the issue. It issued a directive in December to “improve the working conditions under which the platform works,” meaning new rules will be followed.

courtesy photo

Then there is the problem of algorithmic discrimination. Companies use algorithms to verify that drivers are who they say they are, but facial recognition technology is known to be worse at identifying non-white faces than white ones. In London, the vast majority of drivers are people of colour, and some have been removed from the platform because of this disparity.

The termination without an opportunity to appeal was the main motivation behind the strike that Awaad helped organize in October. Around 100 drivers gathered in the fresh London air, holding big black banner “End Unjust Termination, Stop Ruining Lives” written in white. In the background, protesters held signs with pictures of drivers. “Restore Deborah,” one of them said. “Restore Amadou,” said another.

During that meeting, United Private Hire Driver announced It’s based on discrimination complaints made by facial recognition errors. “We expect the courts to put pressure on Uber because it happened in other countries, not just ours,” Awad said.

“At first I thought I didn’t understand how big this moment would be,” Field said. By the afternoon, big-name celebrities showed their support.

Working drivers face other dangers. Covid exposure is an ongoing problem. The same goes for attacks – Awaad has spoken to drivers whose cars have been attacked and robbed. He plans to organise a protest in front of the UK parliament demanding safety measures and has been in contact with other unions representing drivers, hoping to form a coalition and get the companies to take action.

“We have two drivers killed in nigeria. We have A driver was killed in London on February 17We attack drivers every day,” Awaad said. “It’s not just about London. This is a global problem. “

sabotage union saboteur

In September, Imperfect Foods workers voted to unionize, they found their employer ready to play The role of union breakers.the same thing HelloFresh in November, another grocery delivery service whose workers in Aurora, Colorado, reported bullying and intimidation from management.When workers at Amazon warehouses in Alabama voted in April on whether to unionize, the company intervened so widely that the U.S. Order of the National Labor Relations Board redo. (In a separate solution, The agency said Amazon must allow its workers to unionize freely. )

Yonatan Miller, a volunteer with the Berlin chapter of the Union of Skilled Workers, says the tactic is spreading. “Germany has a deep tradition of social compromise and social partnership, where companies are not so hostile or hostile,” Miller said. “It’s what you see imported from the U.S. — this American-style union-busting industry.”

Uli Kaufman

The Skilled Workers Alliance is a grassroots, volunteer-led organization with 21 chapters worldwide. Miller got involved in 2019 and still remembers the first meeting in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, with about 40 tech workers in attendance. “Most of us are newcomers, as they say in Germany. Some of us are from Arab or Muslim backgrounds,” he said. But most are from Latin America, Eastern Europe or elsewhere in Europe.

The idea behind the consortium is to help find global answers to global problems, and in its two years of operation in Berlin, it has achieved many tangible results.it Help organizers of grocery app Gorillas, Germany’s first unicorn company, has fought fiercely with the workers’ council, a union-like organization within a company that seeks to fight for workers’ rights.it is also help raise funds An Amazon warehouse worker in Poland has been fired in what the coalition says is retaliation for her union activities. When HelloFresh workers tried to unionize, the Union chapter in Berlin organized a protest in front of the company’s headquarters in solidarity. Anytime there is a need or need, the league comes in to provide training, advice or support, much of which “happens more discreetly behind the scenes,” Miller said.

In his view, these efforts are bringing the tech industry closer to the standards of other industries. His labor group was inspired by the activities of teachers and health workers, as well as by the Google strike. The inability to mingle with these other workers is one of the reasons the pandemic has been so frustrating – it has cut off people’s access to bars and parties, where complaints become ideas and ultimately taken at a time when the industry is just beginning to embrace the need Action for labor organizations. “We won the moral argument,” Miller said, “but we couldn’t change it.”

Technology, Integrity

Frances Haugen’s testimony has yet to settle in October, when two former Facebook employees made an announcement. Sahar Massachi and Jeff Allen are launching Integrity Institute, A non-profit organization that publishes independent research and helps set standards for integrity professionals working to prevent harm from social platforms. Both Masage and Allen have been thinking about the idea for some time.they will Efforts to clean up the platform As part of Facebook’s integrity team; some of Allen’s research is one of Haugen’s leaked documents. Now they want to answer some big questions: What does integrity work look like as a discipline? What does it mean to build an internet platform responsibly?