I’m talking to a political group about worker organising in tech. Does anyone have information on current/recent worker resistance/strikes/sabotage inside investor-owned tech companies, in the UK and internationally? Links/gossip welcome.
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The quickest source for this is this database:
Which has a corresponding GitHub - GitHub - collective-action/tech: Documentation of all collective action from tech workers.
Happy to chat about this in general of course. Some of our members are involved with Tech Worker Coalition in London.
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This is gold!, thanks for the info.
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A group is starting up in Scotland - Fairer working conditions in Edinburgh Tech Sector - Open Tech Calendar
It’s Prospect staff involved, but they emphasise it doesn’t have to be Prospect people join - tho apparently STUC has recommended tech workers join Prospect.
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This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks all!
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IWGB are helping gaming industry workers organise in the UK too via Game Workers Unite UK: https://www.gwu-uk.org
You might also want to check out GWU more broadly - https://www.gameworkersunite.org
They’ve got news: https://www.gameworkersunite.org/press
and resources for workers in the industry: https://www.gameworkersunite.org/resources
If games is your thing I can recommend this book, Marx at the arcade (HaymarketBooks.org) by Jamie Woodcock who is helping organise with games industry, couriers, and Amazon turkers.
FYI - my other job, as an academic researcher in computer science, is looking at empower gig economy workers who are food and parcel couriers so I’m reading around in this area a whole bunch and going to interesting events.
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Assume you’re in touch with Trebor Schloz at https://platform.coop? He’ll be connected to lots of people studying/ researching similar stuff
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I was not! Thanks for the pointer 
3 years ago, I was laid off by a big American investment bank I worked for 10 years as a computer programmer in Tokyo by means that were probably bordering on the legality.
I took the “offer I could not refuse” and left the company and my story is probably very common.
I think the reason why there aren’t many collective actions against such shady layoffs is that the banks are basically “cult groups” (Figuratively speaking, I say this for emphasis - their ideology is just not mine) around the management hierarchy, where the majority want to go up in the ladder by endearing themselves to the leadership.
This is why I am interested in starting or joing a worker coop
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To add up to the question. Which are the most important tech worker unions in the world?
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I don’t know about most important, but in the UK we recently started UTAW (United Tech & Allied Workers) UTAW: United Tech and Allied Workers
There’s Game Workers Unite (GWU) in the UK too (https://www.gwu-uk.org) and is a branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain union (IWGB).
Globally I’ve not been following, but UTAW is part of the national CWU and GWU is part of IWGB. I believe some branches of IWGB has some affiliation with IWW. So there’s international solidarity if you trace up the trade unions.
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Just found this:
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Interesting article from Tech Worker Coalition site, critiquing ‘guilt-driven’ and ‘policy-driven’ techy organising (and by implication ‘tech for good’) - saying it’s no substitute for the real thing if you want to subvert the industry and be part of the workers movement
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