The Wikimedia Foundation Refuses to Recognize Its Employees' Union

The refusal and the “secret ballot”

On July 20, the American branch of the Wiki Workers United (WWU) union demanded that the Wikimedia Foundation grant voluntary recognition — following a similar request from the British branch in June. No answer came by the appointed deadline (July 24, during the Wikimania conference in Paris). Only on July 27 did the Foundation publish a statement in which it refused to recognize the union.

The Foundation's official position: the proper path is a secret ballot supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), since it supposedly “protects individual choice.” The union had earlier gathered the signatures of a majority of employees through the “card check” method, but in the Wikimedia-l mailing list Jimmy Wales called that procedure flawed: in his words, some workers felt pressured, since their choice was not anonymous. He did note, however, that he personally expects a vote in favor of the union and hopes to move the process along quickly.

The union-busting lawyers

Activists saw the refusal differently. On July 28 the WWU announced that it was filing for an election through the NLRB, and accused the Foundation of bad faith: while publicly professing neutrality, “behind the scenes” it had allegedly already circulated to employees and the press messaging in the vein of classic anti-union rhetoric, prepared, in the activists' view, by expensive specialist law firms. Insisting on the NLRB procedure, the union believes, serves only to drag out the vote and buy time for a pressure campaign.

The community noted that the Foundation has for more than a decade worked with Jones Day — a firm known in the U.S. for its fierce fight against unions (though until now it had handled the “Wikimedia” brand and trademarks). In the end, however, it turned out that for this matter the Foundation had chosen Littler Mendelson — a firm with an equally loud reputation in the same field.

The community's reaction was largely one of alarm: people fear that the pause before the vote will be used to discourage employees from joining the union. A new petition to the Board of Trustees calling for recognition of the union has been launched on Meta-Wiki — as of this issue's publication it had gathered more than 150 signatures. Two earlier solidarity petitions, started in May, each collected over 1,200 signatures.

A side effect

The dispute has reverberated within Wikipedia itself. As Signpost notes, in the recent election of two new administrators some editors voted against the candidates precisely because of their open support for the union, deeming it potentially harmful to the project.

Source: Hacker News