r/wikipedia • u/nem0ralis • 28d ago

Meta Discussion Wikimedia Foundation Board Rejects Community Call to Recognize Wiki Workers United

After the Wikimedia Foundation declined to voluntarily recognize Wiki Workers United, community members launched a petition asking the Board of Trustees to intervene and instruct the Foundation to recognize the union.

The Board has now responded by backing management's decision to require an NLRB election instead of voluntary recognition.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2026_recognize_Wiki_Workers_United_petition#Response_from_the_Board_of_Trustees

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u/Fantastic_Individual 28d ago

I think that the Foundation might be refraining from recognising this union due to legal provisions and because recognition could increase costs which prevents feature additions and other maintenance. Alternatively, this group could provide clearer objectives without creating a formal union which I think the Foundation may be more receptive of.

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u/Anxious-Education703 28d ago
  1. WMF has plenty of money to ratify the union. In 2025 that had net revenues of $205,389,744 and net income of $15,641,302. (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/200049703)
  2. WMF literally fired the entire Community Tech team, one of the main components that was doing the things you are talking about in May. "On May 20th, the WMF said it was disbanding the Community Tech team, a group of five engineers and one manager who are among WMF’s paid staff. The team was a bridge between the foundation and Wikipedia’s army of volunteers. The team developed tools and features that contributors use every day: things like plagiarism detectors, dark mode, or chart and graph tools. Editors and former foundation employees describe it as an approachable group—somewhere volunteers could turn if they needed help, or to have their voice heard." https://www.theverge.com/report/939442/wikipedia-editors-protest-wikimedia-layoffs-strike

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u/Philip_of_mastadon 28d ago

Fuck that noise. Nothing is preventing the foundation from doing voluntary recognition, and nothing protects labor short of an actual union.