After years of efforts to unionize, more than 200 local and remote US workers from the San Francisco-based Wikimedia Foundation voted to join the Communication Workers of America labor union Thursday.Thursday’s vote follows months of organizing at Wikimedia Foundation, where employees have discuss ed unionizing for about a decade. As Wired reports, the effort gained momentum after the foundation, which is headquartered in San Francisco, expanded by hundreds of employees during the pandemic, with workers saying the growth brought more bureaucracy and left some staff feeling powerless in workplace decisions.More than 200 employees across departments including software engineering, finance, and communications reportedly voted in the election. Workers say frustration with how management handled hiring, firing, and other organizational changes were the main issues driving the union effort, as opposed to pay and benefits.One major turning point in the group’s efforts was the foundation’s decision in May to disband its six-person Community Tech team, which developed tools requested by Wikipedia’s volunteer editors and served as a link between the foundation and its contributor community. The foundation said the work would instead be distributed among multiple teams because the centralized system had created bottlenecks and delays.According to The Verge, the decision drew immediate backlash from longtime Wikipedia contributors, who called for the team to be reinstated. Some also questioned whether the restructuring was connected to the employee's push for unionization. Nadee Gunasena, chief of staff at the Wikimedia Foundation, denied that any staff had been terminated for union activity and said the foundation would try to place the six employees in other roles.Lauren de Lench, a lead technical program manager, told Wired she supported unionization after seeing colleagues hesitate to raise concerns or propose unconventional ideas because they feared retaliation.“I want us to be loud and debate freely up and down the organizational chart because that’s how we move quickly, address challenges, and come up with the best collective solutions,” de Lench said.As Wired reports, the organizing effort also stems from the growing pressure Wikimedia faces from AI companies that scrape Wikipedia for training data, while human traffic to the site has been declining as more people turn to chatbots to answer questions. Workers say the organization needs to rethink how it responds to those challenges, and they believe staff and volunteers should have a greater role in shaping that strategy.After 70% of eligible US staff signed union cards, the workers reportedly partnered with Communication Workers of America Local 9415. The foundation declined to voluntarily recognize the union, saying a formal election was more democratic, but workers said management remained neutral during the vote.The workers will now negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the foundation, with expected issues including protections against termination without just cause, per Wired. The foundation has hired Littler Mendelson, a law firm known for representing employers in labor disputes, for the negotiations. Wikimedia workers in the UK are also organizing and hope to eventually coordinate with the US group.Related: Ghirardelli’s SF Flagship Store Closes as Union Workers Begin Three-Day Strike ...read more read less