An Oral History of the Kickstarter Union. Contributed by Clarissa Redwine. Kickstarter United is the first major tech workforce in the United States to achieve unionization in the face of antagonistic management. You can click through for transcripts, but make time to listen to the audio at least for Chapter 2, Catalyst, featuring Kickstarter’s internal struggle over the small comic book project Always Punch Nazis. (Previously.)
Introducing an Oral History of the Kickstarter Union: “Forming a union, signing this card, feels risky, sounds risky, but it doesn’t even compare to the risk and danger that we let ourselves be in if we work without protection. If we let management have that power to constructively terminate or to fire us for no reason, with no recourse and nothing to show for it. Letting that situation stand, working under those conditions? That’s risky…. – Taylor”
Chapter 1, Fertile Ground: “Kickstarter had a mission that acted as a veil and a salve for all of these issues, making it harder for workers to identify when they were being mistreated.”
Chapter 2, Catalyst: “Always Punch Nazis.”
Chapter 3, Solidarity: “[I asked him] how he expected folks of diverse perspectives to feel like they could continue participating in these conversations when he and another white man were going to bat for Nazis. Uh, and he was not too pleased about that. -RV”
Chapter 4, The Leak: “Do you mind if I ask who else is involved? And I know now that that is a terrifying question to ask an organizer. -Toy”
Chapter 5, Captive Audience, Part 1: “Management had mounted a robust anti union strategy and was willing to do whatever it took to kill this organizing effort before it could get off the ground.”
Chapter 5, Captive Audience, Part 2: “There is not one team in an office. There are two, management and workers. And when management asks workers to stand with them and forgo a right to collective activity, they are not raising us up to their level, they are reinforcing the ceiling on worker agency.”
Chapter 5, Captive Audience, Part 3: “Leadership made themselves more and more approachable . . . Cultivating emotional ties to Kickstarter… and the leadership team… and the mission… was the sugar that made swallowing anti union sentiment more palatable for workers on the fence.”
Chapter 6, Retaliation, Part 1: “They were just looking for a reason to get rid of me. . . . One of the examples that they cited for poor performance was that I hadn’t responded to an email within 24 hours, eight months prior. – Sarah”
Chapter 6, Retaliation, Part 2: “People used to literally kill union organizers. So, you know, it could be worse. – Taylor”
Chapter 7, Recognition: “If they’re going to play the cartoonish bumbling villain, then we have to show the world. You know, Kickstarter lives and dies by the faith that its users, the creators and the backers have in the company and the platform. . . . People have to feel good about Kickstarter for Kickstarter to function. – Taylor.”
Chapter 8, The Vote: “One last one on one with a coworker who had been on the fence. . . . she was like, . . . what does this accomplish. And I… I just said, if this doesn’t happen. This will be an infinitely worse company to work for and And I don’t remember the exact words where she said, Okay . . . I just remember that she said, Okay, I’m voting yes. – Dannel”
Chapter 9, The Count: “At a certain point the yes votes completely stop. And all we hear is no, no, no, no, no. – Patrick”
Chapter 10, The Pandemic: “Holy shit . . . You want to layoff 40% of the company? – AnonT”
“On this same day, the union holds an emergency meeting for the bargaining unit to discuss next steps. Attendance is high. – Grace”
“In addition to layoffs, management was aiming for an austere severance package. . . . at a tech company that has high turnover paired with aggressive hiring over the past year, where 50% of the entire company had been hired less than two years prior, this meant that many employees would be getting two to four weeks of severance total, in a pandemic. -Trin”
“Thank fucking christ we had a union before. We got in under the wire. Because we would have been so fucked if we didn’t have the union to negotiate this stuff. – Kilian”