Day one of the Workers’ AI Counter Summit! ✊ A day of ideas, debate, creativity and conversations about who benefits from AI, who bears the costs, and how workers and communities can shape the technology affecting our lives.
United Tech & Allied Workers
@utaw.tech
United Tech & Allied Workers, organising across UK & NI | The first union for tech workers, by tech workers | A branch of CWU | 📧 contact@utaw.tech
The UTAW @cwunews.bsky.social Tech Workers’ Inquiry outlines how generative AI is changing work across the tech sector, written with the perspectives and experiences of workers who build, deploy, manage, evaluate and use this technology. Download the report here: techworkersinquiry.org/ai/
7000 members and counting 🎈The UK's original and largest trade union for tech workers has hit a new membership milestone, with 7,000 active members joining our branch to fight for better conditions for workers in tech, and for more responsible deployment of the tech we build.
We hit 7000 members yesterday at @utaw.tech There is a future in grassroots trade unionism, and we're leading the way in tech.
Multiverse employees organising with UTAW are lifting the lid on the effects of intrusive, inaccurate and remorseless monitoring by the company's AI model: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Teachers at Euan Blair firm report ‘horrendous stress’ after AI used to rate their work
Exclusive: Instructors at tech training company Multiverse hit out at ‘remorseless’ and ‘unnerving’ monitoring system
theguardian.com
But speaking of staying in one's lane, can we PLEASE switch the default position from "It's fine to use 'AI' for this thing I'm not an expert in" to "Yeah, I'd be really skeptical of any use cases and need to see strong evidence that it's okay, but I'm not the one who can produce that evidence"?
We're hosting a panel tomorrow (Monday the 28th) in Liverpool about our new Workers' Inquiry on AI - come down to the Dog and Collar from 6:30 - 8:30pm.
Yes! We need workers' expertise and lived experiences to help shape how AI is built and deployed. In contrast to the tech execs "representing capital’s avaricious vision for genAI technology...the voices in this report speak in terms of progress, fairness, and defence of the vulnerable." 👏👏👏
United Tech & Allied Workers@utaw.tech · 3w agoEveryone’s talking about AI, but no one’s actually asking workers how it’s affecting us. So we’ve done it ourselves. Today we are launching the AI Workers’ Inquiry, a new study led by workers themselves, into the way AI is changing work. Read it at go.utaw.tech/ai
Everyone’s talking about AI, but no one’s actually asking workers how it’s affecting us. So we’ve done it ourselves. Today we are launching the AI Workers’ Inquiry, a new study led by workers themselves, into the way AI is changing work. Read it at go.utaw.tech/ai
AI Workers' Inquiry 2026 | Tech Workers Inquiry
How AI is changing work in the tech sector, from the workers who build, deploy, manage, evaluate and use this technology. A Tech Workers' Inquiry from UTAW.
go.utaw.tech
We're so looking forward to heading to Dublin for @data-cwu.bsky.social's Workers' AI Counter Summit!
Digital And Techworker Alliance (DATA)@data-cwu.bsky.social · 3w ago📣 Workers’ AI Counter Summit Guest Speaker Announcement We’re delighted to welcome Sonia Fereidooni of @notechforapartheid.bsky.social and @utaw.tech, and PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge, to the Workers’ AI Counter Summit.
1/ This is bottom-up, not top-down, and reflects choices MPs (and their staff) are making. I spoke to several. Reactions ran the gamut from denial to defence: "for every half hour saved on speechwriting, 'that is another 30 minutes we can put into supporting my constituents.'"
‘Google is in the military kill chain’: Google DeepMind’s AI workers are unionising over ethical concerns around the provision of cloud and AI technologies to the US and Israeli militaries, but the company is pushing back. www.computerweekly.com/news/3666502...
Inside Google AI worker’s union drive to instil company ethics | Computer Weekly
‘Google is in the military kill chain’: Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence workers are attempting to unionise over ethical concerns around the provision of cloud and AI technologies to the US a...
computerweekly.com
Our friends at @data-cwu.bsky.social in Ireland are hosting a Workers' AI Counter Summit in October, register below and we'll see you there!
Digital And Techworker Alliance (DATA)@data-cwu.bsky.social · 2mo agoRegister to attend Irelands Workers’ AI Counter Summit on 10th & 11th October here: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/UeykLfFDu8
I've never seen such an effort to censor a document as I have the Amnesty International report on gender critical groups because of JK Rowling. They removed the report from the Wayback Machine and now I got a DMCA strike on my Google Drive for having it. It was deleted and removed from my account.
The very first website is 35 years old today, and you can still visit it at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html! "On August 6, 1991, the first website was introduced to the world. [It] contained information about the World Wide Web Project […] [Original post on stefanbohacek.online]
Wikimedia Foundation CEO "we support the employee’s right to unionize" Also Wikimedia Foundation CEO: *hires Littler-Mendelson, the largest union avoidance firm in the US* @wikimediafoundation.org
Essential reading for those following the @wikiworkersunited.org campaign OR wanting to prepare/inoculate against union busting in their own workplace. medium.com/regarding-wi...
Lies, Damned Lies, and Union-Busting Statements
What the Wikimedia Foundation is saying versus the evidence
medium.com
Our branch secretary Duncan wrote about the limits of legalism and why organising is the way forward for workers, have a read: utaw.tech/news/anti-le...
“Can my boss do [bad thing]?” is a question often asked by workers to their union reps. It’s an important question – one of our tasks as a union is to ensure we understand our rights as workers. It should be rephrased though, because people and organisations can and do breach workers rights and behave in all sorts of ways they shouldn’t. The real question is “what can we do when my boss does [bad thing]?”. A right is as good as our ability to enforce it.
utaw.tech
We spoke to Arielle Pardes about the end of tech worker exceptionalism and the move towards organising collectively in the tech industry: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
How AI may drive union-resistant tech workers to the bargaining table
Tech workers are increasingly unionizing, trading Silicon Valley’s myth of exceptionalism for collective bargaining to contest the corporate deployment of artificial intelligence
theguardian.com
Could Guardian’s “partnership” (bung) from OpenAI be leading to absolute dross articles like this?
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo agoCould AI be conscious?
We're proud to be a sponsor of this year's @emfcamp.bsky.social. UTAW members are around this week at the camp. Come + find us to learn about how UTAW is organising across the tech sector + maybe even grab a sticker or two. For members on the UTAW Discord, find the emfcamp-2026 channel to say hi.
As published by @utaw.tech: utaw.tech/news/trust-... The full essay, with all sources and easier to read citations, is here: www.blackhc.net/essays/trus... Speaking in my personal capacity as a UTAW member, not on behalf of Google or DeepMind.
Trust is not Governance
Google DeepMind's reported Pentagon contract shows why trust and safety culture can't substitute for real governance: independent oversight, transparency, accountability; and protected employee voice.
blackhc.net
Individual objections are easy to ignore, and employee leverage shrinks as models improve. That's why the @utaw.tech / @cwunews.bsky.social recognition effort at Google DeepMind matters: independent ethics oversight, whistleblower protection, and a right to refuse projects on moral grounds.
I work at Google DeepMind. This won't make me popular. But it's all public reporting: 2014: DeepMind reportedly sold to Google on conditions: no military use, independent oversight 2026: a Pentagon contract for "any lawful government purpose" Not one safeguard survived intact
NEW 🚨| 22 trade union leaders, representing more than 1.3 million workers, are calling on @rockstargames.com to stop playing games with workers' rights and recognise the @gameworkers.co.uk . Read and share the letter below 👇 #Solidarity #StrikeMap
We’re looking forward to marching with our marras in branches across the CWU and the wider trade union movement next Saturday at the Miners’ Gala!
A serious essay by me with many personal thoughts: utaw.tech/news/trust-i... It's on us as Google DeepMind employees to demand real governance, and our union's (@utaw.tech) recognition push is the most realistic path to get there before it's too late
UTAW: Trust is not Governance
DeepMind has bet that a strong safety culture and good leadership built on trust are sufficient to withstand outside pressure. The bet has failed.
utaw.tech
Rockstar workers attempting to unionize today after mass firings and i hope to God they succeed. I want the people who make the games we love to be treated right lol