Submitted 16 hours ago by dwzap@lemmy.world to workreform@lemmy.world
https://medium.com/@jakeorlowitz/wikipedia-is-doing-the-capitalist-thing-56a393232943
In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire job was to listen to volunteers. Most of the people they fired were union organizers. Wikipedia’s editors are now threatening to strike in solidarity. The Foundation is sitting on $296 million in reserves and a freshly profitable AI revenue stream. This is a confrontation with global implications.
Fantastic article. Is there anyway non editors can support action?
I decided to cancel my recurring donation, citing these actions as why.
Here’s the email I wrote:
I would like to cancel my recurring donation in response to Wikimedia’s decision to fire Brooke Vibber and the Community Tech team. I love Wikipedia, but I have concerns around the anti-union and anti-community actions that are happening under the current leadership. I will not in good conscience continue to support a “nonprofit” organization that is following the big tech/Silicon Valley anti-labor playbook.
- The type of change you would like to make to your donation - cancel
- The email address that was used when the donation was made - [redacted]
- The full name used - [redacted]
- The amount and currency of the donation - $20 USD recurring monthly
I hope the Wikimedia Foundation rethinks its approach to the community and its workers, and establishes practices of transparency.
Thank you,
Yoink. Here I go cancelling again.
I wish I was already a donor so I could send this email. First time I’ve felt regret like this, I should be more proactive about supporting things like this in the future. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve done the same. This sucks, but I didn’t realize I was donating to an organization without a workers union agreement in place.
Wait for the editors to strike and then make shitty edits
I have an awesome candidate: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Standing_(economist)
Holy fuck.
I wonder what the ostensible excuse for the firings were? The article didn’t mention it, but I suppose that’s not public information.
…It should be, though. I feel like there’s not a lot of reason for Wikipedia to keep decisions secret.
I mean, it'd be pretty harsh for them to publicly publish that the teams commit velocity was down and they were all PIP'd, lol. Not that I think that's likely, but there are lots of possible for cause reasons that shouldn't be shared.
If anything, I suspect the reason is the more pedestrian "moving in a different direction" from the wish list process.
That’s true.
krellor@fedia.io 11 hours ago
I don't really know the details here as I can't find any other sources or articles, let alone statements by the affected parties.
But the statement that wikimedia is rich because it has 17 months of operating reserves and a profitable unit with $8.1M in revenue seems a bit naive when said about an organization with 650 employees (likely $50M annual payroll) and misses the point, if indeed the point is about union busting as the headline claims.
For me, I'm less interested in the financials and more about the story from the fired individuals. As a monthly donor, if the team comes out saying they were fired for unionizing, then I'm happy to cancel. But if it was more to do with business or operating disagreements, that's another story, even if I disagree with the specific operational decision.
But I tried following the links to the discussion pages and the solidarity pages. But most of the comments seem to be upset about the direction of the community wish list, the loss of the wishlist, and no direct statements about union busting. I then tried searching team member names and fired keywords, and couldn't find any sources or direct statements.
So I dunno. I'll wait for credible first hand statements from the team before I cancel my donation. Cancelling a community request team sucks, but union busting is a completely different ballgame.