(Photo credit @moritz_photography)
Do you remember that saying about the weather in March? Well, it definitely started like a lion, but I’m still waiting for the lamb part…I’ve also been re-watching one of my favorite TV shows, Madam Secretary. I was not really a fan of Tea Leoni before this show - but she did an amazing job in this role. One of the episodes I just watched had to do with worker’s rights, so that may have inspired my focus for this week on how the tech industry views & interacts with unions.
#techtopic
Unions are a group of workers who have joined together in some type of collective or association in order to protect workers’ rights and advance their interests. Labor unions have been recognized in the United States since 1935 with the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act. Unions exist to provide a set of standards for groups of workers with respect to education, skill levels, wages and other benefits.
Over the past few years, tech workers have begun to explore unionization as a way to protest decisions made by the leaders of their respective companies. Interestingly, there seem to be two veins, depending on the type of employment with the tech company.
The first groups to unionize were the contractors who worked in “auxiliary roles” in some of the top Silicon Valley companies, such as security officers and cafeteria workers. Those working in contractor roles are often working many hours, but are paid hourly rates, have lower job security (due to the nature of the contract work), and unable to take advantage of the huge bounty of perks available to full-time employees. One big discrepancy that is particular to the Bay Area is that contractors are unable to ride the omnipresent shuttles employees use to get to work, as it’s seen as a taxable benefit.
Here is a survey of some of the most recent union-related news across a swath of major tech companies:
Kickstarter was the first tech company where white-collar, full-time employees passed a resolution to create a union in February 2020.
Alphabet/Google has struggled with union activity over the past few years. Contractors in Google Pittsburgh voted to create a union in Aug 2019. In Nov 2019, Google fired 4 employees involved in labor organizing, citing data security concerns. In Jan 2021, a small group of 230 workers formed the Alphabet Workers Union, with membership already up to 800+ people, including full-time, temporary, vendors and contractors.
Amazon workers in an Alabama warehouse are voting now on whether or not to unionize, widely seen as a watershed moment for bringing unions to Amazon US. We’ll know the results after March 30.
Uber has been a very vocal opponent to classifying drivers as employees (as it would up-end their business model). The Independent Drivers Guild is working to change that. After voters in California kept drivers as independent contractors via Prop 22, Lyft has been trying to figure out how to work with unions. Uber has not. Yet, in February 2021, Uber was forced by the UK government to classify drivers as employees, which could have more ramifications here in the US. Seems odd that the same work at the same company could be classified differently in two very similar countries...
And now unions are upending food and grocery delivery too. Instacart laid off nearly 20% of its 10,000+ workforce, including all 10 of the employees who voted to unionize in IL. Since Doordash went public in Dec 2020, union organizing efforts have increased when it’s clear that the billions raised in the IPO have not trickled down to any of the delivery workers. And a recent side effect of Prop 22 in CA? Grocery stores Vons and Albertsons are letting go of union delivery drivers in favor of using Doordash, Uber and other gig worker drivers.
All of this activity in tech is reflecting the similar challenges with disparity and inequality happening in the wider United States economy. Many tech workers since the late 1990s have felt that they were working in tech to improve the world (like the famous “Don’t Be Evil” from Google, removed in 2018). As everyone shared that ethos, they didn’t need unions. But as of late, many workers have felt a lack of adherence with that mission. Organizing is a way to bring back some of that power to the workers to affect real & positive change in the world. It is clear however that tech companies cannot ignore employee activism any longer, and must figure out how to best engage -- as talent is the most important part of how a tech company operates.
Interested in learning more? Check out Collective Actions in Tech or the Tech Workers Coalition.
