It feels like tech workers have had very few breaks in recent years, between continued mass layoffs, stagnant wages due to inflation, AI supposedly coming to take jobs, and unpopular return-to-office orders that threaten to disrupt work life for many. balance.
But in 2024, a potentially critical mass of technology workers appeared to reach a breaking point. As labor rights groups advocating for tech workers told Ars, these workers are banding together in continued strong numbers and winning, or seem tantalizingly close to winning, better working conditions at big tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft.
In February, the industry-wide Tech Workers Coalition (TWC) noted that “the tech worker movement is far more expansive and impactful” than even labor rights advocates realized, noting that unionized tech workers have moved beyond early stories of Googlers being pushed by the streets marched and now “he makes headlines every day.”
Ike McCreery, a TWC volunteer and ex-Googler who helped found the Alphabet Workers Union, told Ars that while “it's difficult to estimate numerically” how much movements have grown, “our feeling absolutely is that the momentum continues to grow.”
“It's been an exciting year,” McCreery told Ars, expressing particular excitement that even “highly paid tech workers are really seeing themselves more as employees” in these fights — which TWC has “been pushing for for a long time.”
In 2024, TWC expanded efforts to help workers organize across the industry, helping everyone from gig workers to project managers build both union and non-union efforts to create workplace change.
Such widespread organizing “would have been unthinkable just five years ago,” TWC noted in February, and some of 2024's biggest wins clearly show that some movements are making gains that could further fuel that momentum in 2025.
Workers could also gain the upper hand if unpopular policies increase the “brain drain” in a November study. That's a trend where tech companies that employ potentially alienating workplace tactics risk losing top talent at a time when key industries like AI and cybersecurity are facing serious talent shortages.
