John Mark Ockerbloom4d ago

From LB: "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....

The Foundation has spent twenty years telling donors it is not like other tech companies. The union drive is the moment when that claim either becomes true or admits it was always marketing." https://medium.com/@jakeorlowitz/wikipedia-is-doing-the-capitalist-thing-56a393232943

Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Playbook Has Come for Wikipedia

TLDR: In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire…

Medium
Show threadJohn Mark Ockerbloom
Extensive discussion of the Wikimedia Foundation's layoffs, the wish-list team disbandment, and the union drive, from various points of view (including some WMF representatives) can be found at the Village Pump on Wikipedia. Discussion may eventually move to a dedicated page, but here's one starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(WMF)#WMF_Community_Tech_team_has_been_disbanded,_engineers_laid_off
Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF) - Wikipedia

May 27 at 1:37amWeb
Show threadMike Taylor 🦕3d ago
@JMarkOckerbloom And yet at the same time they are recruiting. https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4404223143/
Wikimedia Foundation hiring Senior Software Engineer, MediaWiki in European Union | LinkedIn

Posted 6:32:41 PM. SummaryThe Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join the MediaWiki…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.

Show threadWenzel Massag3d ago

@mike @JMarkOckerbloom I can think of three reasons:

1, they might not want to fill those positions. I’ve seen that with many companies; they advertise positions they don’t plan to hire. Don’t ask why, I don’t get it.

2, there might have been internal/personal reasons to let go of the entire team. They wouldn’t want to talk about it publicly.

3, they’re looking to fill those roles with employees who won’t work on unionising.

Show threadMike Taylor 🦕2d ago
@stairjoke @JMarkOckerbloom Number 3 is the one that leapt immediately to mind. I can't begin to make sense of Number 1.