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.
So far, G/O Media shut down Jezebel, slashed even more jobs at The Onion, and made cuts at Gizmodo. Vice staff are also reporting layoffs, and some Popsugar staff lost their jobs as well. (Disclosure: Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company, owns Popsugar.)
G/O Media angered staff and readers this summer when the company began experimenting with generative AI tools. G/O said AI wouldn’t replace the work done by human employees.
Free Radical Design is the next studio affected by Embracer Group’s slow implosion after a $2 billion deal fell through earlier this year. The studio had been re-established to work on a TimeSplitters reboot, and according to VGC, a number of employees have already been let go with the studio itself subject to closure if Embracer can’t find a suitable buyer.
[Video Games Chronicle]
The vote count for the Accenture workers, who are contracted by Google to help make content for the company and say they’ve also helped train Bard, will take place at 5PM ET.
The New York Times reported today that Tesla will meet with striking Swedish union IF Metall on Monday to negotiate an end to the strike, which has been ongoing since October 27th.
Last week, the Times says, dockworkers said they would stop unloading Teslas in solidarity. According to OnLabor, IF Metall widened the strike notice to all Swedish shops that repair Teslas — not just those owned by the company — after TM Sweden said Tesla’s policy forbids union agreements “in any country.”
CEO Devin Finzer says OpenSea is “shifting to a smaller team with a direct connection to users.” Decrypt reports about 50 percent of employees are impacted. When it laid off 20 percent of its employees last year, around 230 people remained.
This chart shows OpenSea activity peaked with over 50,000 active wallets (around the time it was valued at $13 billion) and $140 million in daily volume, which has dropped to fewer than 8,000 active wallets and $2.3 million in volume.
Normally, going on strike means forgoing your salary as a condition of withholding your labor from your employers. Not so for the United Auto Workers. According to the Wall Street Journal, UAW members are set to receive an average of $100 a day for the time they were out on strike. Who’s paying this money, you may ask? Why, the automakers of course: Ford, GM, and Stellantis. It’s an incredibly unusual arrangement and a sign of the union’s commanding victory in its dealings with the companies.
Seriously, somebody give UAW President Shawn Fain the dice. This man is on a hot streak.
Bandcamp United has filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against Songtradr, the company that purchased Bandcamp from Epic Games, according to a report from 404 Media.
The union alleges that Songtradr refused to hire employees because they “joined or supported a labor organization and in order to discourage union activities or membership,” 404 Media reports. Last month, Songtradr confirmed that only 50 percent of Bandcamp workers were given offers to join Songtradr, with the rest getting laid off.
The United Auto Workers union president and vice president announced the deal in a video that’s also transcribed on the UAW site.
The two said that, as part of the agreement, a Belvidere, Illinois plant will re-open, two others will stay open, and Stellantis will cancel planned layoffs.
CNBC wrote that the deal was modeled off of the one the UAW reached with Ford last week.
In a series of posts on X, the Screen Actors Guild announced yesterday evening that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers invited it back to negotiations.
AMPTP walked away from talks earlier this month over its demand for two percent of streaming revenue. According to Variety, the union has amended that to 57 cents per year, per subscriber.
Yesterday marked the 100th day of the strike.
The group of stars, which also includes Emma Stone, Ben Affleck, and Tyler Perry, met with the leaders of SAG-AFTRA this week, proposing the removal of the $1 million cap on membership dues, Deadline reports.
Clooney tells Deadline that would result in over $50 million paid to the union every year, which could go toward improving health care benefits:
A lot of the top earners want to be part of the solution. We’ve offered to remove the cap on dues, which would bring over $50 million to the union annually. Well over $150 million over the next three years.
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.
