If the myth of tech over the past decade has been one of constant innovation, algorithmic scale, and new products and devices that “simply work,” the truth is that all of those illusions were made possible by the obfuscation of labor: the contract content moderators who sanitize the feeds of Facebook and YouTube from violence and extremist content; the warehouse workers at Amazon fulfillment centers trying to meet the guarantees of same-day shipping; the gig workers of all kinds — Uber drivers, food delivery cyclists, Instacart shoppers, among them — all of whom are at the whims of increasingly efficient platforms and wayward legislation.
And that’s not even to speak of the white-collar tech workforce that, while better compensated, is still being taken advantage of by NDAs and mandatory arbitration clauses that keep hidden the realities of discrimination and harassment in the office. But now, some workers across tech companies are organizing for better treatment and pay. Others are making efforts to unionize. Most importantly, the movement will reach everyone who works in tech — and anyone who uses those platforms. The story of the tech industry over the next decade will be the reckoning brought on by its workforce.
Google reportedly laid off between 40 and 45 employees in its news division this week. CNBC reported the layoff, citing an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson and a confirmation from Google itself.
According to CNBC, the Google spokesperson said the team still employs hundreds of people. The job cuts are part of an ongoing trend in the tech world, including larger layoffs at Google earlier this year.
The interactive media arm of SAG-AFTRA and video game companies are continuing negotiations. The two sides are working to come to an agreement that is beneficial for video game performers and to stave off a potential strike that was authorized last month.
The National Labor Relations Board announced yesterday it’s processed 2,594 union formation petitions over the last year. Business Insider reported that’s a 58 percent increase from fiscal year 2021 when the NLRB saw 1,638 such requests.
The board says the 22,448 unfair labor practice cases filed were the highest since 2016. This year has seen big union action like the continuing Hollywood writers strike, as well as efforts at Amazon, Disney, DoorDash, and others.
[National Labor Relations Board]
“Microsoft remains steadfast in our support of our current and future employees in whatever choice they make about their workplace and their representatives,” Microsoft’s Brad Smith wrote in a blog post. Under the agreement, “Microsoft will take a neutral approach when employees covered by the agreement express interest in joining a union,” according to the CWA.
Workers at Blizzard’s Albany, NY offices and Activision subsidiary Raven Software have unionized.
Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm has become the latest tech giant to conduct layoffs, eliminating 1,258 positions in its San Diego and Santa Clara offices, roughly 2.5 percent of its global workforce.
The layoffs were foreshadowed in the company’s last earnings report, where it blamed “the continued uncertainty in the macroeconomic and demand environment.” The cuts are expected to take place in mid-December and primarily affect engineers.
Talks between SAG-AFTRA and the studios to end the union’s ongoing strike were derailed on Wednesday evening. One area of contention was the actor’s union request for viewership bonuses.
Sarandos defended the studios, calling the bonuses “a bridge too far to add deep into the negotiations right now,” in a conversation with Bloomberg journalist Lucas Shaw on Thursday morning at the Screentime conference in Los Angeles.
Deadline reported that DreamWorks Animation made the cuts because of business downturn, increased costs, and the strikes that went on for much of this year.
A spokesperson for the company told Deadline that “approximately 70 positions” were cut, spread across its corporate infrastructure, as well as films, TV, and technology departments.
Game Developer reported Friday that Employees of the Polish games studio CD Projekt Red (CDPR) have formed the Polish Gamedev Workers Union (PGWU) under the nationwide union OZZ IP due to the studio’s layoffs earlier this year.
PGWU co-founder Pawel Myszka said in an interview with Polish outlet CD-Action (translated with Google translate) that CDPR has not responded to the employees’ unionization.
The contractors were laid off from Keywords Studios, reports Polygon. The staffers voted to unionize in June 2022.
BioWare, the developer of Dreadwolf, is also being sued by former employees who allege they are owed better severance packages.
Visual effects workers at Disney voted 13-0 to form a union with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) on Tuesday.
The 18-member division is looking for fair compensation, better health care, and retirement benefits, Variety reports. Just last month, Marvel’s VFX workers voted to unionize with the IATSE as well.
Eurogamer and VG247 report a Team17 spokesperson confirms CEO Michael Pattison, who joined the company two years ago after leaving PlayStation, is out. In 2022, Team17 was one of the companies that announced plans for an NFT project, before backtracking.
In response to rumors of plans for layoffs with “tens of redundancies,” the statement says:
We can also confirm that we have sadly entered into a period of consultation today within Team17 Digital, with Astragon and Storytoys remaining unaffected by the restructuring plans.
From its new writers room staffing minimums to guarantees that staffers will receive a bigger cut of streaming residuals, the WGA’s new labor contract is set to fundamentally improve working conditions in the entertainment industry.
The plant’s 2,500 future workers are now pawns in ongoing UAW talks, despite Ford not explicitly saying so:
“We are pausing work and limiting spending on construction on the Marshall project until we’re confident about our ability to competitively operate the plant.”
The UAW wants battery workers paid the same high wages as other autoworkers, but Ford says that it already can’t compete with Tesla or foreign-owned EV makers in the US due to high labor costs.
Bloomberg reports that annual increases for Apple’s retail employees, including AppleCare technical support, will be about 4 percent this year, down from eight to 10 percent last year. Bloomberg cites labor shortages, inflation, and unionization efforts as factors in last year’s higher increases. Guess things are back to normal?
After nearly a week of indie developers tearing down Unity’s new pricing policy that was set to take effect on January 1st, the company now says, “We have heard you.” Unity’s pricing scheme that was set to take effect in 2024 would have established a convoluted setup charging game makers for downloads and installations.
Unity didn’t hint at what the changes are or reference the protest that saw some prominent devs disable its ad monetization tools, only saying it will release the details “in a couple of days.
Nicole Carpenter at Polygon has an excellent report on workers in a Corsair warehouse in Duluth, Georgia, and their efforts to organize. In addition to Scuf, Corsair also owns Elgato and recently acquired Drop.
We’ve tested various Scufs, including ones we recommend in buying guides, and it’s all too easy to overlook the labor that goes into these high-end controllers that are essentially hot-rodded models from Sony and Microsoft.
