Welcoming Glitch Workers to Local 1101

In March Glitch workers voted to join Local 1101, part of a larger national CWA effort to organize workers in the tech industry. We talked to Sheridan Kates, who is a Senior Software Engineer at Glitch. Glitz laid off a number of its employees in March, and Sheridan talks about what having a union meant when that happened. Sheridan's excited about being in 1101.

"Glitch is a platform for people who want to get a web application up and running in the simplest way possible.  We build mini applications – a program to send text messages, a bot to integrate with Slack. Half of our people are in NYC and the other half are in other parts of the country. Those people were working remotely before COVID, now we all are.

The biggest change in having a union so far has been the support we got during the reduction in force. The fact that we had union representation meant there was more discussion, negotiations around the terms of separation and the severance. It was a horrible time, but having a union made the whole process more humane and it felt like we were all in it together.

In the tech industry there are relatively few people per company. I’m super excited about joining 1101 and being part of a bigger group and confronting the challenges that face us as a society as a whole. We live in a country where health insurance is tied to our jobs for instance. Is that what we want? Should we be pushing for Medicare for all? I’m really appreciate of everything (1101 organizer) Keith Hogarty and (District 1 Staff Rep) John Dempsey have done already and I’m excited about what comes next."