More than 170 employees at the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia, voted to join the Communications Workers of America union. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board counted 158 votes in favor and 14 against on Thursday.
Three Wikimedia employees told WIRED that unionization will give staff a formal way to challenge management as the foundation responds to growing competition from AI chatbots and a decline in volunteer Wikipedia editors. The 25-year-old, San Francisco-based nonprofit employs nearly 700 people in 39 countries, most of whom work remotely. The new bargaining unit includes employees in software engineering, finance, communications and other departments.
Loren de Lenzi, a chief technical program manager who has worked at the Wikimedia Foundation since 2021, said she supported unionization after seeing colleagues hesitate to speak during company meetings because they feared retaliation for raising concerns or suggesting unconventional ideas.
“We want our voices to be heard and discussed freely throughout the organizational chart, because that’s how we move quickly, address challenges and collectively find the best solutions,” de Lenzi says.
In a Thursday blog post, the Wikimedia Foundation said it would respond to the vote “constructively, lawfully, and with respect for the staff who enable us to serve people around the world.”
Wikimedia employees say concerns about compensation and benefits were not the primary reason they organized. Instead, they point to dissatisfaction with the foundation’s handling of hiring, layoffs and other staffing decisions during the past year as the final catalyst for the union campaign.
Employees cited concerns about the possibility that the foundation could disband the team responsible for developing tools used by volunteer editors to contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, including the image repository Wikimedia Commons. In a separate move, management removed France from the list of approved hiring locations for product and technology roles.
Several volunteer Wikipedia editors also expressed solidarity with Wikimedia staff by organizing a campaign to improve Wikipedia coverage of trade unions and related subjects.
“I would like to reach a position of mutual trust, but there is a huge gap,” de Lenzi says. “There are healthy parts within the foundation, and I want everyone to have those relationships.”
In an organization-wide email seen by WIRED, Wikimedia Foundation CEO Bernadette Meehan described the union vote as the beginning of a new chapter and said she was “optimistic” about the future. “The concerns that many of you have shared about management practices, organizational planning, staff departures, and the clarity and availability of facts are as important as ever,” she wrote. “We will continue to work together to make meaningful improvements across our staff.”
Wikimedia’s growing pains
Wikimedia employees have discussed forming a union intermittently for roughly a decade, but the effort never advanced to a formal election. Staff members say organizing gained momentum after the foundation hired hundreds of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating additional bureaucracy and leaving some workers feeling they had little influence over organizational decisions.
“Management had to reverse certain decisions,” said Nico Aramayo, a senior paralegal who joined the Wikimedia Foundation during its period of rapid expansion. “Wouldn’t it be better if we all sat at the table?”
The Wikimedia Foundation remains in a strong financial position, with an annual budget of more than $200 million and approximately $300 million in growing net assets. However, AI companies are increasingly scraping Wikipedia to train their models, which can increase server costs.
At the same time, human traffic to Wikipedia articles is declining as more people turn to AI chatbots for information. Wikimedia staff are concerned that these changing user trends could reduce interest in contributing to Wikipedia and threaten the quality and sustainability of its content.
Source: www.wired.com