Social Justice – Get Involved

Do This: Labor Solidarity Actions You Can Participate In 

*Use the Fairwork Rating System to Become an Ethical Platform User*

Want to be a more ethical user of gig economy platforms?  Check out Fairwork which is creating a rating system to help us tell how well platforms are respecting the rights of gig workers.  Here are some things you can do put it into practice:

– Read the 5 principles of Fairwork.  One set of principles is for general service work that is offline organized but through apps, like in the cases of food delivery and ridesharing.  https://fair.work/en/fw/principles/  Another set of principles is specific to online platform work, or “cloudwork”.  https://fair.work/en/fw/principles/cloudwork-principles/

– Choose these companies that have been vetted by Fairwork as top-rated companies for things like ridesharing, food delivery, and cloudwork.   https://fair.work/en/fw/publications/fairwork-annual-report-2021/  Use this when organizing academic events, hiring online workers for your research, or even for your personal use.  These rankings are organized by country, and unfortunately the US case is not quite available yet, but this list for Cloudwork rates many global companies which are in many countries:  https://fair.work/en/ratings/cloudwork/

– Add these readings to your syllabi from Fairwork researchers who are writing reports and academic pieces on workers’ rights in the gig economy.  https://fair.work/en/fw/publications/

– Sign this pledge to honor the Fairwork Principles.  We did!  As a nonprofit organization.  You can do so as well as an individual. https://fair.work/pledge

Where the Action is:  Support These Unions and Workers Associations Organized by Our Members

Coworker.org is a laboratory for workers to experiment with 21st century power-building models for the collective liberation of working people. Coworker has been supporting the leadership of working people by connecting them with tools and resources so they succeed in their workplace change initiatives.

Solidarity Fund by Coworker helps workers raise and distribute money and experiment with mutual aid and organized advocacy to make changes inside their companies and industries. A pilot program for workers in tech launched in 2020 and new initiatives are coming in 2022, including a Fund for Starbucks workers.

Jobs with Justice is leading the fight for workers’ rights and an economy that benefits everyone. They believe that all workers should have collective bargaining rights, employment security, and a decent standard of living within an economy that works for everyone. Jobs with Justice brings together labor, community, student, and faith voices at the national and local levels to win improvements in people’s lives and shape the public discourse on workers’ rights and the economy.


Queen’s of Code is a women’s technology history project which is collecting stories, experiences, and insights from women who worked in information technology at National Security Agency in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Because these women’s jobs were often top secret and they worked on the most sensitive national security programs, they couldn’t discuss what they did; in many cases, they couldn’t even confirm they worked there. Queens of Code is bringing the NSA’s computing women out of the shadows — allowing them to claim their rightful place in history and the ever-evolving story of how technology has altered America’s position in the world


United Tech and Allied Workers (UTAW) is a national branch of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and is the biggest tech union in the UK. UTAW was founded and is led by and for tech workers. You are a tech worker if: you develop or deploy technology, regardless of your employer’s industry; if your workplace is owned by a tech company; or if your labour is a necessary part of a tech companies’ operation; if you are studying to work in tech or you educate others in technology. As a union we will fight for worker control of the technology industry with an aim to end the exploitation and oppression of all peoples. The union understands that the exploitation enacted by tech companies is a subset of the exploitation enacted by a speculative global economy driven by the search for obscene profits for the very few. Therefore, our fight is interlinked and in support of the struggles of the working class, wherever they are oppressed

Academics for Peace (AfP-Germany) is a non-profit association that was founded in Germany in October 2017 by the academics who signed the now well-known ‘Peace Petition’ in Turkey in January 2016, as well as their colleagues who supported the values of academic freedom and freedom of speech. AfP-Germany organizes solidarity campaigns with peace academics, raises awareness about colleagues who have been threatened, targeted, lost their job, and banned from working in the public sector. Our aim is to function as an international “hub” for human rights organizations, NGOs, academics, as well as international press seeking information on the repression against the Academics for Peace in Turkey.

Tech Workers Coalition is a coalition of workers in and around the tech industry, labor organizers, community organizers, and friends.

Rank and File Action is a group of militant rank and file activists at CUNY challenging the culture of austerity in higher education and demanding a more democratic fighting union. RAFA stands for participatory, inclusive, democratic unionism and grassroots, militant, working-class organizing for a vibrant and fully funded people’s university that supports the basic needs of students, staff, and faculty and challenges multiple oppressions harming our communities.

Public Higher Education Workers is a network of staff, faculty, and students meeting to learn from each other about how to organize against the ongoing attacks and fight for fully funded, free, liberatory public higher education.

Data Justice Manifestos, Principles, and Bills of Rights:  Imagine a More Just World and How to Get There

AI Decolonial Manyfesto
A Tech Workers’ Bill of Rightsby the Tech Workers Coalition
Building Consentful Tech
Design Justice Network Principles
Detroit Digital Justice Coalition Principles
Fairwork Principles and Cloudwork Principles
Feminist Data Manifest-No
Feminist Principles of the Internet
National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights by the National Domestic Workers Alliance
Rideshare Drivers Bill of Rights by Rideshare Drivers United
The Worker Privacy Act by the Center on Privacy and Technology

Tools for Activism