Kickstarter workers make history with unionization vote

Enlarge / Kickstarter employees work at a library in the company's Brooklyn headquarters in 2017. (credit: Jim.henderson)

Workers at Kickstarter voted Tuesday to form a union. It's the first time the white-collar workers at a high-profile technology company have formally chosen to be represented by a union. With growing unrest among workers at larger technology giants-including Google and Amazon-it could be the start of a trend.

Kickstarter has long been an unusual technology company. In 2015, the firm re-organized as a public benefit corporation, devoted to promoting the public interest rather than maximizing profits. In 2017, Fast Company reported that Kickstarter employed an equal number of men and women, paid its top executives less than five times more than the average employee, and was working hard to recruit interns from diverse backgrounds.

But Kickstarter became embroiled in controversy in August 2018 when it hosted a crowdfunding campaign for a comic book called "Always Punch Nazis." Conservatives cried foul, saying that Kickstarter's terms of service prohibit projects that encourage violence against others-and that some liberals have labeled mainstream conservative figures, including President Donald Trump, as Nazis.

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