#1 AWU, Alabama and more!
#1 AWU, Alabama, and more!
Welcome to the first edition of the DiscoTech newsletter! We are inspired by the tech community and are excited to share an interview with an Alphabet Workers Union member below. (Alphabet is the parent company of Google.) Let’s dismantle discrimination in tech together.
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#TechTruths
In our TechTruths campaign we have gathered over 100 stories of discrimination across the tech industry with the goal of drawing the attention to the scope of the problem. Below is a sampling of the stories we’ve received. You can read all the stories on our website, and can submit your own here.
Content Warning: Sexism, Sexual Harassment, Racism
TechTruth #113: "I have been told several times by colleagues that I should not be working in technology (as they pointed to brown-skinned window washers cleaning the building windows of our offices)." (full story)
TechTruth #85: "I hear one of my fellow interviewee say exasperatedly - 'I guess there goes my shot at this, we all know they're probably filling the diversity slot today." (full story)
TechTruth #101: "A skip level manager [(man)] told me [(woman)] "On this team silence is consent," in his closed door office" (full story)
At Issue
Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), a trade union of workers at Alphabet Inc., launched on January 4th, 2021 with the mission to ensure that their workplace conditions are fair and inclusive. The organization promotes solidarity, democracy, and social and economic justice. We talked to Raksha Muthukumar, one of the active members of AWU about activism and organizing. Here is Raksha in her own words,
“I'm a queer programmer and community organizer. I've been doing some form of community organizing around queer liberation/racial justice/leftist politics for the last decade and now I'm really excited to play my small part in the tech labor movement. I like writing and podcasting on these topics, you can see my stuff at raksha.gay. I'm also a hamster mom! I'm obsessed with my little nugget Molly; she's an escape artist and a walnut lover and her instagram is @molly.so.spoiled.”
People have been trying to organize tech for a while, but we haven’t seen many tech unions. What was the key to Alphabet Workers Union’s success?
“I think the prospect of tech unions has been bubbling up for some time now! We've organized in so many other ways for years now, with walkouts and petitions, but we've never had the formal protections of a union. Then through initiatives like the Tech Workers Coalition and CODE CWA, we started seeing workers coming together and discussing a real union structure. I really credit CODE CWA for their initiative to reach tech workers and help us realize that unions were a route for us. Tgh experience in this space really helped us get over the initial hump of learning our rights, learning to talk to our coworkers, and learning to navigate union busting tactics.”
How can people replicate your organizing in their own workplaces?
“The first step is talking to your coworkers. Find out what they love about their jobs and what are their sour points. Do they feel underpaid because of their immigration status? Do they feel pressured to work late hours even though they have kids at home? Do they feel doubtful about the direction of the company's ethics? What matters in your workplace? There's no universal right answer to this question so no 2 workplaces will organize the same way.
I encourage folks to get plugged in with CODE CWA or Tech Workers Union 1010! They've been hosting workshops on how to talk to your colleagues and how to really get the ball rolling. I found these sessions really useful for the tangible skills I needed to start this process.”
What do you hope for the union to achieve?
“My number 1 goal personally is solidarity. I hope that our union can stand with fired AI ethics leaders just as much as underpaid cafeteria staff. And I hope our efforts here galvanize other workers in the tech industry to adopt the same solidarity model! I'd love to see uber/lyft engineers walking out when their drivers are exploited, or amazon office workers strike with their factory colleagues.”
How have the reactions been since the union was announced, inside and outside Google?
“I think it's been amazing! When we went public we had around 200 people; 3 weeks later, we have over 800!!! I'm genuinely floored to see how many of my colleagues feel similar to myself about workplace democracy and raising our voices at google. It's been galvanizing and encouraging and a real validation of what we've been talking about for so long. There is some anti-union sentiment in the company as much as anywhere else, but my impression is that a lot of it is based in confusion around what a non-majority union like ours can actually do. I hope that we can address a lot of those concerns as we continue to act and stand up for one another.”
What do you think are the biggest issues in the tech workplace?
“I have a hard time ranking things! I like that our union allows us to work on multiple things in multiple committees and I can trust my colleagues without having to fight every individual battle myself. I think contractor compensation is important, I think racism and sexism have gone unchallenged for too long, I think that building an ethical technological future is our responsibility! I believe in our union's ability to address all of these issues and more!”
Why do you choose to stay at Google and unionize instead of finding a different workplace?
“I ask myself this often. I think that, right now, the problems that I see at Google are mirrored around the tech industry. The issues of contractor and gig worker exploitation, unethical privacy and AI standards, tech lobbying and policy stances are endemic to silicon valley. The opportunity to potentially change that and set an example with our efforts at Google feels like a chance to really change ALL of that, not just the culture at Google.
Also -- I want to say that I'm happy in my current role. I work on an open-source project with people I feel respected and challenged by. I unionized because I want to see bigger picture decisions at Google reflect the workers voices, and I've recently felt a disconnect between the workers' and the execs' perspective on Google's direction.”
Unions still seem taboo in the US. Do you think that is changing? If so, what is changing it?
“I think that American workers were absolutely burned by unions in the past and there's some absolutely valid lingering skepticism about them. But I think that, unfortunately, avoiding unions didn't solve the problems of sexism, inequality, and corruption that permeate our workplaces and lives. One thing that gives me a lot of hope in AWU is that we're taking a really conscious approach to being anti-racist and transparent in our decisions. We're building structures to elevate marginalized voices, and structures to rectify our mistakes if and when that goes awry. I can't say the same thing for most of our workplaces. I think Americans are coming back to unions because we've realized that the only way to fight for ethical wages, benefits, treatment, is by coming together. I won't say that unions are unilaterally perfect, but I will say that I'll choose democracy and transparency any day over the alternative.”
Following AWU’s announcement on their international alliance, Alpha Global, there have been reports of disagreements within the organization members. Here is Raksha’s response to those reports.
Things to check out
The ongoing Amazon union vote from Bessemer, AL, stands to be one of the most important union votes of our lifetime. Courageous workers from this majority-Black town have banded together to stand up and fight for their right to collectively bargain. Reporting indicates that Amazon has resorted to a varied palette of anti-union tactics, going so far as to change the pattern of traffic lights in order to reduce the time available to talk to union workers at the intersection outside the warehouse.
If you’re interested, read more at some of the following links. The workers in Bessemer deserve your support.
Amazon Workers Share the Shocking Tactics the Company is Using to Stop Workers From Forming a Union (More Perfect Union)
Google employees quit over Timnit Gebru’s exit https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/tech/google-employees-quit/index.html
Medium employees unionize https://mashable.com/article/medium-employee-union/
Signal messaging app grows in popularity https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/tech/signal-growth-whatsapp-confusion/index.html
What We’re Up To
Imagining Interracial Sisterhood
DiscoTech members attended Imagining Interracial Sisterhood, an event where friend-of-DiscoTech Kristal Conner spoke about the support she has received from her interracial relationships. The event provoked thoughtful discussions about creating and sustaining interracial sisterhoods in your personal life and at work. We were reminded of Shine Theory, a concept coined by interracial friends Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman.
9to5: The Story of a Movement Panel
Hana Thier, co-founder of DiscoTech, sat on the panel of an early showing of the documentary 9to5: The Story of a Movement. She spoke about what we can learn from the organizing that the 9to5 group of Bostonian secretaries were using in the 1970s to fight for better pay and working conditions. Check out the PBS website for how to watch the film.
Amazon shareholder resolution
Last year, we filed a shareholder resolution at Amazon asking for a report on promotion velocity broken down by gender and race. We have resubmitted the resolution this year. Check out the recording of Amazon employees that we played last year at the annual shareholder meeting.
And Action!
Interested in DiscoTech? Like the content of this newsletter? Here are some things you can do to get involved:
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About DiscoTech
We are a diverse group of cross-tech organizers who are committed to ending discrimination in the workplace -- discrimination by race, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, immigration status, etc.
We aim to work within and outside of existing processes inside the tech industry not only to increase awareness of discrimination but also to help institute large-scale changes to end it.
DiscoTech is on Twitter and Instagram. Information on how to submit a story, subscribe to the newsletter, or get involved is on the DiscoTech website.
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