Employees at Kickstarter have succeeded in a bid to unionize, making them the first tech company employees to successfully do so despite efforts at other tech companies to do the same.
The move to unionize by Kickstarter employees was finalized by a vote overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, where the bid to unionize succeeded by a vote of 46 to 37. With the successful vote, the now unionized workers, who will worth through the Office and Professional Employees International Union, can begin union-backed contract negotiations with Kickstarter management.
The path to unionizing at Kickstarter began in earnest in the wake of the controversy surrounding the "Always Punch Nazis" campaign, a Kickstarter campaign attempting to seek funding for a comic book that caught considerable flak from some, who saw the comic book as a slight at conservatives, such as President Donald Trump. Kickstarter management removed the campaign due to the backlash but immediately reversed their decision following complaints from Kickstarter employees. The push to unionize began shortly after that, largely to give employees more say in the workplace. Relations between employees and management became strained in the wake of the incident; relationships were further strained by the firings of two employees involved in union organizing. While management denies the correlation between the organizing and their firing, Kickstarter's employees did not believe this claim. Two other employees left the company due to tense relations with management. Several days before the vote, it was revealed that around the same time, Kickstarter management had Duane Morris, a firm specializing in maintaining a "union-free workplace," on retainer.
The move by Kickstarter's white-collar employees sets a unique precedent for the rest of the tech industry. As of late, the tech industry has struggled with management-employee relations in the wake of countless scandals at major tech firms. Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), in particular has become notorious for its questionable corporate culture. The company has been the target of mass protests by employees for questionable conduct such as its contracts with the Pentagon to develop artificially intelligent drones and became the target of widespread criticism both within and without for its project to develop a heavily censored search engine for China.
Employee activism at tech firms has been on the rise as white-collar tech workers find themselves increasingly concerned by the actions of their employers, but despite the widespread activism, moves to unionize have largely faltered. The move by Kickstarter's workforce sets a precedent for other tech firms but, being that Kickstarter is a relatively small company in terms of its workforce, it was relatively easier for Kickstarter employees to unionize. For larger companies such as Google or Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), which employ thousands of workers, efforts to unionize will inevitably face more obstacles.