As we recently discussed, tech layoffs appear to be fueling union activity, and that could remain the case amid ongoing recession fears. The CWA, which continues its crusade to recruit tech workers under the Code-CWA umbrella, aims to capitalize upon the economic downturn.
This could be a sign of the times for an industry that is still relatively new territory for unions, although a tighter tech job market could ultimately have the opposite effect. Still, the CWA rained publicity upon a recent White House roundtable event, which praised Microsoft’s public-facing strategy of collaborating with unions.
Here’s a roundup of recent CWA-related news:
- The smallish Alphabet Workers Union gained hundreds of new members after layoffs. At least, that’s the case according to a lead Code-CWA organizer,
- The 58 striking Google YouTube Music contractors, who are formally employed by Cognizant Technology Solutions, entered their third week on the picket line in Austin to protest the company’s return-to-work policy.
- Workers for music streaming platform Bandcamp, acquired by Epic Games in 2022, formed the Bandcamp United union, as announced by the group on social media and publicized by Code-CWA.
- A group of employees from TCGPlayer, the eBay trading card marketplace, voted to unionize as the TCGUnion under the CWA.
- Current CWA President Chris Shelton will soon retire following over 50 years in the union and a handful of years as the chief.
And here are some assorted updates from Hollywood about the WGA and IATSE:
- The Writer’s Guild of America is gearing up for a repeat of the 2007-08 strike that put several TV and movie productions on pause for 100 days. Negotiations look to be heated ahead of the current WGA expiration day of May 1. The script stockpiling has begun, but this time, chief negotiating duties will change hands as the WGA’s veteran negotiator, David Young, goes on medical leave.
- Walt Disney Animation Studios Production Workers are seeking to unionize under the Animation Guild/IATSE Local 839. The studio declined to voluntarily recognize the union while asserting that production supervisors and managers will not be eligible to vote in an NLRB election.
- Visual effects professionals recently rallied on Hollywood Boulevard on Oscars ceremony day to publicize their intent to unionize with IATSE.
- Two Hallmark movie productions violated labor law, according to an NLRB judge, by firing drivers who were organizing workers on the sets.
