Another Tech Company Gets Unionized

Employees at Kickstarter unionize

According to POLITICO, engineers, analysts and other employees at the crowdfunding company Kickstarter voted to join the Office and Professional Employees International Union, the company said today.

The NLRB vote, 46-37, marks one of the tech industry’s first successful organizing drives, and comes as labor groups ramp up efforts to organize video-game and other tech workers.

“The tech sector represents a new frontier for union organizing,” said Richard Lanigan, OPEIU president and Local 153 business manager, in a prepared statement.

During the union drive, Kickstarter declined to grant the union voluntary recognition, the union said, and engaged in “typical union-busting and intimidation techniques” such as “hiring a crisis-management public relations firm” and firing employees on the organizing committee.

But the crowdfunding company wrote today in response to the vote that “leadership supports and respects their decision.”

“We’re proud of our staff and of the fair and democratic process that got us here,” the company tweeted.

The vote follows a wave of tech worker unrest in recent months, including walkouts and employee protests at Google over issues ranging from the company’s handling of sexual harassment to its work with Customs and Border Protection. Employees at Riot Games in Los Angeles walked off the job in May over the developer’s policy of requiring mandatory arbitration in worker disputes.