169
Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Playbook Has Come for Wikipedia (medium.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/workreform@lemmy.world
15 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 9 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

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 the WMF to keep decisions secret.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    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.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •