this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
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Wikimedia Foundation refuses voluntary union recognition, hires union-busting law firm (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by inari@piefed.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] lucullus@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 3 months ago (2 children)

including those laid off, since some are still hoping to find jobs elsewhere at the WMF, and others are depending on severance pay

Am I too european to understand this? If they "get jobs elsewhere at the WMF" this is not a layoff, is it? I know the US has nearly no worker protections, so maybe that makes it a layoff. Do they need to interview for these positions again?

If this were something other than Community Tech, maybe I could convince myself it's all just a coincidence. But the WMF has been on a generally upward trajectory at avoiding decisions that will piss off the entire community. "Don't disband CommTech" might as well be the "don't mess with the pancreas"of WMF governance. The only explanation for the WMF doing this—not just reörganizing but outright laying off the team—is that they are so determined to prevent the union from becoming official that they are willing to risk the massive community blowback (which, from a corporate-brain point of view, is a greater downside than the five people left jobless).

That paragraph I don't understand. Why is union busting the only explanation?

From one of the comments of that Reddit thread:

the union was apparently formed exactly 90 days prior to the layoff announcement; under california state law (where they are located) “a termination within 90 days of protected union activity creates a rebuttable presumption that the termination was illegal retaliation”

I think that is an interesting detail here, though I have not bothered to go through the sources for this.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

My employer does this too. It is a layoff technically but employees are given the opportunity to interview for another position in the company if they want to stay. If it was a "restructuring" the employees would've been moved to another department and possibly a new role without their consent.