United Tech and Allied Workers Union Branch

Google and Microsoft staff set to join the UK's first tech trade union.

21:35 23 September 2020

The United Tech and Allied Workers (UTAW) has launched the UK's first union branch to address issues in the workplace and provide assistance to individuals employed by tech companies. Members are looking at having their rights and jobs protected in an increasingly precarious environment and support the more vulnerable workers within tech companies like office cleaners or couriers. Workers from giant companies, including Deliveroo, Monzo, ASOS, Google and Microsoft are planning to join, a spokesperson has claimed. 

 

John Chadfield, one of the founding members of the branch, said: "The need for trade union organising is as acute in tech as anywhere else. Workers have seen through the bubble of ping pong tables, free t-shirts and desk beers." 

 

Ash, a 28-year-old software developer is planing to sign up to the union when it launches, said: "It boils down to the fact that tech has a climate impact and many things which also have a climate impact rely on tech. As tech worker, we are in a unique position. We have a lot of leverage and a lot of complicity. We are often quite close to the systems we are protesting against." 

 

Kara Stubbs, the interim chair of UTAW, said: "If you are in a tech company and you have a problem, whatever that is, either you don't agree on the direction the company is taking or you have a dispute with your employer, currently your only recourse is to leave the company and find another. It's currently viable, but it is not really a way to live your life. What I would really like to see is workers fighting or making their voices heard rather than moving on."