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In recent years, tech workers have united across regions, job titles, and industry sectors to shape the end uses of the tech they create.
The movement gained steam in 2018 when Google employees protested Project Maven, a Pentagon contract that provided automated imagery analysis for military drones. Google canceled the contract months later, and the movement spread to Microsoft, Amazon, and the entire tech industry.
Now, tech workers are organizing against facial recognition, workplace monitoring software, and predictive policing algorithms. But, like everything else, organizing looks very different nowadays.
I spoke with Grace Reckers—who is on staff at the Office and Professional Employees International Union and on the steering committee of the NYC Tech Workers Coalition—about the shift to all-digital action.
The struggles
“Zoom fatigue”: Workers used to talk about and plan organizing efforts in person. While virtual organizing meetings retain their sense of purpose, Reckers says, they can feel “more like an extension of the work day.”
- Sam Kern, an engineer at Google until recently, says adapting was tough. “The unity that we’re seeing now is not because we’re remote, it’s despite us being remote,” she says.
Security: In-person conversations outside the workplace are generally the most secure way to talk about organizing. Privacy concerns have been a hurdle—digital platforms must be distinct from work platforms while also being accessible. Some committees Reckers works with avoid Google Drive because the contents are so easy to share; plus, she says, “they don’t trust Google.”
The benefits
Inclusivity: Now that someone can hop on a Zoom call while taking care of kids or being in a different state or city, says Reckers, campaigns are getting crucial perspectives they missed before.
Intentionality: A scheduled conversation can stand out more than a casual run-in. And there are still organic moments—Reckers says responding to coworkers’ Instagram Stories about related topics has been effective.
Scope: Reckers is currently helping tech workers in California and New York organize their workplaces.
- “We’ve built a lot more solidarity between tech workers who are organizing over the past few months because some of those geographic barriers are broken down,” says Reckers.
Bottom line: All-digital tech action is a struggle, but, in some ways, it’s made uniting tech workers more possible than ever. With that unity comes more power to shape the technology that’s created and who can use it—and to what end.
“It’s not only about the immediate workplace conditions, but also about the larger communities that the industry affects,” says Reckers. “It’s having a little more control over the usage of their products that they create—because they’re the ones who built them.”