UTAW: UK Wikipedia Workers seek union recognition
Wikipedia workers in Britain are setting a global first by becoming the first body of workers at the online encyclopaedia to seek union recognition.<br>British-based employees at the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) wrote a letter to management today, Wednesday 24th of June requesting their right to be represented by the United Tech and Allied Workers (UTAW) section of the Communication Workers Union (CWU)<br>The workers have called on the WMF, as the effective management of the global non-profit operation, to uphold recent public commitments made by its leadership affirming the rights of staff to organise and form a union.<br>The WMF has undergone a period of significant change in recent months, escalating workers’ concerns over transparency, trust, and the organisation’s future direction.<br>The workers are longtime contributors and organisers, and are deeply committed to the Wikimedia movement.<br>Over 1000 Wikimedia volunteers and community members have also signed petitions in support of the workers, who have networked globally under the banner of Wiki Workers United (WWU).<br>The WMF is the non-profit organisation that operates Wikipedia and its sister projects. Collectively, they represent the world’s largest free knowledge websites, written and maintained by a global set of volunteers.<br>Outside of the United States, the United Kingdom is WMF’s largest employment location, and a substantial majority of its UK staff are union members.
“Our union is proud to stand with these principled workers, who are initiating this process in the hope of creating a durable workplace grounded in transparency, accountability and participation across the WMF workforce.
We urge the organisation to meet them in this spirit of good faith and co-operation.”
Quote from John Chadfield, CWU National Officer for Tech
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