2021-2022 Series
The last few years have seen an uptick in unionizing among tech workers writ large. What can efforts to increase the sustainability of digital infrastructure learn from these movements? How do ideas of work and labor in our space intersect with those in other parts of the tech landscape? As workers, how do OS-DPI contributors relate to employees of big tech, gig workers, or startups? What paths of solidarity are available? Which feel untread and unfamiliar?
Join a panel discussion with labor organizers from across the tech ecosystem. Workers and organizers at start-ups, in the gig economy, and in big tech reflect on the resources and networks they draw on as they plan collective actions built on worker solidarity. Together their reflections offer new directions to push on and expand what "sustainability" means across the tech ecosystem.
Aerica Shimizu Banks is a tech policy expert and inclusion innovator. After experiencing the triumphs and trials of tech – building successful DEI programs at Google and then holding Pinterest accountable for its racism and sexism – she now creates systems and frameworks to elevate and restore equity in our institutions. To learn more about Aerica, visit aerica.co.
Clarissa Redwine explores community-driven progress. While working at Kickstarter, she joined the union drive as a member of the Organizing Committee and later produced the oral history of Kickstarter United as a Fellow at NYU Law. Currently she is a core contributor to Collective Action in Tech, a platform for tech workers organizing for change.
Jennifer Scott is a gig worker who has been delivering food by bicycle in downtown Toronto for 4 years. She is the president of Gig Workers United CUPW, the Toronto based community union organizing to win labour protections and workers rights for gig workers. Follow her on twitter @PalimpsestJenn.
Nataliya Nedzhvetskaya (moderator) is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and a fellow in Digital Ethics & Governance at the Jain Family Institute. Her research looks at the emergence of employee activism in the workplace and its effects on corporations.