Wikipedia Workers to Seek Union Recognition

Man, it's sad how far the wiki foundation has fallen.

For (literally) decades no one there would have even thought of forming a union! To get them to not only consider it, but actually go through the effort of actually doing it ... the foundation truly has shit the bed.

I've been mostly resistant to unionization for my whole career, but I think now is the right time. Between AI and H1B, the pool of jobs available for engineers is getting smaller and smaller, especially at the low end.

When you destroy the entry level position, you also destroy the pipeline that creates senior engineers, a shortage of which is used as leverage to increase H1B in America.

Have the WMF done something bad that needs counterbalancing or are they just forming a union out of some sort of principle?

Wow, they're on a roll over there. Just two days ago they permanently banned the cofounder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger.

Per his tweet: "Well, that’s that—I’ve been blocked by Wikipedia “indefinitely” for unstated reasons, by the “consensus” of a mob. There was no due process, no prosecutor, no dispassionate judge, no jury, no interpretation of law. All my judges were self-selected and hated me."

Link to his June 22nd tweet on the matter: https://x.com/lsanger/status/2069061483422425287

This made my day. These workers will be better stewards of Wikipedia than management.

The announcement says both

Wikipedia workers in Britain are setting a “global first” by becoming the first body of workers at the online encyclopaedia to seek union recognition.

and

Outside the United States, the United Kingdom is WMF’s largest employment location, and a substantial majority of its UK staff are union members.

Something is inconsistent here. Are they trying to unionize people who edit Wikipedia for free?

we should form a Union at Meta!

It took people in tech an inordinately long time to start finally realizing the value of collective bargaining.