Wikimedia Foundation staffers vote 158-14 to join the CWA, which will represent 200+ US employees across engineering, finance, and communications (Paresh Dave/Wired)
More than 200 people in roles such as engineering, finance, and communications will now be represented by the Communication Workers of America.
A Wikimedia Foundation staff vote of 158-14 has resulted in the decision to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA). This unionization represents over 200 US employees across various departments, including engineering, finance, and communications. The foundation, headquartered in San Francisco, employs nearly 700 individuals in 39 countries, with the majority working remotely.
Lauren de Lench, a lead technical program manager at the Wikimedia Foundation since 2021, voted in favor of unionization due to her concerns about colleagues being reluctant to voice their opinions during internal meetings. She believes that a union would foster open debate and collaboration across the organization, enabling them to address challenges more effectively and develop the best collective solutions. The foundation acknowledged their upcoming phase with a constructive, lawful, and empathetic approach.
The union drive's primary motivation stemmed from frustrations over how the organization communicated past hiring and firing decisions, rather than concerns over pay and benefits. This sentiment was solidified when the foundation disbanded a team responsible for developing tools for volunteer editors, and removed France from the approved hiring locations for product and technology roles.
Wikimedia employees have been discussing unionization for over a decade, but it took the organization's expansion during the Covid pandemic to gain sufficient momentum. The increased workforce, bureaucracy, and subsequent powerlessness among rank-and-file employees pushed the drive forward. Workers hope that a unionized environment will improve trust and create a more equitable relationship between staff and management.
In response, Wikimedia Foundation CEO Bernadette Meehan views unionization as the beginning of a new chapter and is optimistic about the future. She emphasized the importance of addressing management practices, organizational planning, staff departures, and transparency. The foundation's strong financial position, coupled with AI companies scraping Wikipedia's content for information, has led to concerns about server costs and declining human traffic to Wikipedia.
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