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We're still here and we're still fighting for a union! If you can, please consider supporting our aid fund for those of us who are still underemployed or without work.

(Link to our fundraiser in bio)

A image promoting our fundraiser in the style of a LGBTQ dating app chat. From the top of the image, the chatter says "hey" and the recipient responds "hey, sorry. I'm not in the mood." The chatter asks "what's wrong?" The recipient responds "Grindr workers tried to unionize so we could have a seat at the table and fight for an app that serves our community." The recipient follows up with another message "Management forced us out, and we are now 18 months into a legal process to get our jobs back." The chatter asks "How can I help?" and the recipient responds "If you can, we're fundraising for those of us still without work." At the bottom of the image is a URL to the GoFundMe: gofund.me/700d44fe

It’s interesting that Grindr’s blog post about their relocation mandate originally included the highlighted sentence, which was quickly edited out https://www.grindr.com/blog/our-philosophy-on-work-and-building-an-exceptional-community-going-forward

Edited blog content:
Our decision to adopt a hybrid work model was in the works for quite some time. We did our research and charted our course. Beginning in the second quarter of this year we took the first steps toward a hybrid work model by starting to recruit engineers primarily in Chicago, one of the company's two engineering hubs.

Original blog post:
In the second quarter of this year, we started building toward this model when we began hiring engineers predominantly in Chicago, a significant Grindr engineering hub. Our decision to adopt a hybrid model was also made before and independently of any union election petition.

The sentence "Our decision to adopt a hybrid model was also made before and independently of any union election petition." is highlighted to add emphasis.

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

Musk’s X revokes paid blue check from United Auto Workers after strike called

After a report called out Musk's union-busting, UAW's blue check got reinstated.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/musks-x-revokes-paid-blue-check-from-united-auto-workers-after-strike-called/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

I just realized another reason hot desking is bad- it really impacts faceblind people because we can’t depend for locational cues to find the people we need without knowing what they look like.

@drahardja @inferis 😘 https://www.them.us/story/grindr-incoming-ceo-conservative-political-tweets

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

Unions: Good for Everyone, Including Employers
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/09/unions-good-for-everyone-including-employers

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

Pssst. RTO is a union busting tactic. Pass it on. #grindr

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/08/business/grindr-return-to-office-union/index.html

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul just signed into law a bill banning captive audience meetings.

As of today, bosses in NYS cannot make employees attend meetings with those high-paid consultants who come and tell you how scary unions are 👻 Go attend your union meeting instead 😉

Also interesting that around the time Grindr’s RTO and relocation plan was executed, the board member and *majority shareholder* purchased more shares - which further lowers the float of the company’s stock. This is publicly available information. #Grindr #union #LGBTQ #UnionBusting #HotLaborSummer

Screenshot detailing public stock transactions of GRND.
"Director recently bought $381k USD worth of stock
On the 24th of August, George Raymond Zage bought around 70k shares on-market at roughly $5.45 USD per share. This transaction amounted to less than 1% of their direct individual holding at the time of the trade.
• This was the largest purchase by an insider in the last 3 months.
• Insiders have collectively bought $1.8m USD more in shares than they have sold in the last 12 months.”

Screenshot detailing public stock transactions of GRND.
"Director recently bought $517k USD worth of stock
On the 5th of September, George Raymond Zage bought around 100k shares on-market at roughly $5.17 USD per share. This transaction amounted to less than 1% of their direct individual holding at the time of the trade.
• This was the largest purchase by an insider in the last 3 months.
• Insiders have collectively bought $2.3m USD more in shares than they have sold in the last 12 months.”

Public listing of shareholders of Grindr Inc.
1. Raymond Zage, owning 45.16% of all shares
2. Bin Lu Fu, owning 22.88%
3. 28th Street Ventures LLC owning 8.602%
4. Jeremy Brest, 5.864%
5. Ashish Gupta, 5.283%
6. San Vicente Holdings LLC, 4.299%
7. Irakly Arison, 2.157%
8. Jeff Bonforte, 1.693%
9. Prescott General Partners LLC, 1.312%
10. 12 West Capital Management LP, 1.092%

helpful ways to improve poor glassdoor ratings 💡

1. recognize the supermajority of employees that want a union
2. don’t break labor law and lay off half of the company in retaliation by forcing people to relocate or quit
3. treat workers with respect 👍
#GrindrUnited #Union #unionize #CWA #LGBTQ

Screenshot from Glassdoor for Grindr showing 2.8 stars overall, “38% recommend to a friend”, and “33% approve of ceo”

Trend chart for Grindr’s glassdoor rating showing a sharp decline from March 2023 to now from 4.4 stars to 2.7 stars.

Example review from Glassdoor.

“❌ Recommend
❌ Business Outlook
❌ CEO Approval
Pros
It truly used to be a great place to work until the current executive team took over.
Cons
The company doesn't care at all about its employees. Despite high quality performance that had delivered significant results, the company has purposefully created a TO policy that was designed to incentivize most employees to quit. There was a union effort, execs didn't like that, and so they wanted to clear house, and they did. A majority of the company has left in the last month. The internal company politics are so toxic. Couldn't imagine working there now.
Advice to Management
Get new leadership.”

A great summary of what we’ve been going through as of late by @Wired
https://www.wired.com/story/grindrs-return-to-office-ultimatum-gutted-a-uniquely-queer-space-in-tech/

“Last month, Grindr gave its all-remote staff two weeks to pledge to work from an office two days a week starting in October or lose their jobs come August 31. Many declined to return: 82 out of 178 employees-46 percent of the staff-were let go after rejecting the mandate, according to the Grindr union, which went public two weeks before the ultimatum. The policy would have forced many of them to relocate to Los Angeles, Chicago, or San Francisco.”

“Bauer says that Grindr began transitioning from remote-first to hybrid work in April when it started focusing its engineering hiring in the Chicago hub, and had announced that its remote-first policy would be ending at a company off-site in June. Two staffers present say that Grindr CEO George Arison did not announce a policy change, saying only that the company was keeping its options open with no shanges planned in the next six months. In late June, Grindr's interim head of HR posted a Slack message saying that "nothing is changing yet for our current team" with respect to remote work and that hub-based recruiting would only apply to new hires, according to a screenshot viewed by WIRED”

“Grindr's union estimates that 70 percent of the engineering team, 80 percent of the product department, and 85 percent of the product design team were cut after the first phase of the return-to-office mandate took effect last week. Bauer disputes these figures, but says the company does not release this information publicly.”

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

Yesterday, 35 workers—17% of Code for America’s workforce—were laid off. @cfaworkers created a mutual aid fund for everyone who lost jobs.

Cfa workers all worked to strengthen the US safety net. Please donate/amplify & help us build a safety net for them.

https://account.venmo.com/u/CfAWorkersSolidarity

If you're looking for incredibly talented & passionate client care specialists, designers, data scientists, program managers, qual & quant researchers, software engineers, & others, PLEASE REACH OUT.

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

First, the workers at @grindrunited announced their intention to unionize; in response, their management announced a company-wide return to office policy, requiring staff to relocate to distant cities or be fired. (Workers had two weeks to choose.)

Now, the workers are asking people to petition Grindr’s CEO, and demand he recognize the union. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/show-your-support-from-grindr-united-workers

#1u #TechUnions #unions

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

We are extremely appreciative of the support you all have shown the 35 laid off employees in this very difficult and unprecedented time. We'll do our best to keep you posted but for now, thank you so much for contributing to the solidarity fund.

#1u #union

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

Direct line from Reagan killing the air traffic controller’s strike in the 80s to dangerous conditions today. Strong unions protect us all. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/21/business/airline-safety-close-calls.html?unlocked_article_code=XrSjG0cMenhh60LSk2VrA1wR50KqiEACS4BGkT9rsX630TpG9HBB3umeYbpoynosIaiHHY9HGyc5JqhKCmMHtEy09dZ3xnWiLtMiJSy8jw-5muyHeyTWd78VMpA2WAR6xaUkc8_VlLlcMY2V2LnW4KxDrq15t5ppbp2emIlp_2r-qdPywqTBe8Ijov8X3w_KdAQYvLP8QDnLSoSnxbC1D54uz9GGSQsUVFQuRrJ6go5kUMFAe3yU1_V3hEB9uDFmR-tZB-M3Y9zG1SHGZeT5IOOSKYMv3ek9aOYUKomgaIZV_s-LxaTfOssg-xZpKePa6m04yc_bcpYly-u5KpA6Fq0EiT-Ei5ZduXsvQxzSq40lOjuJig&smid=url-share

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

Grindr's Return to Office plan would have me uprooting my family and moving 1000 miles back to Chicago. I'm taking the generous severance they're offering and I'll be parting ways with them at the end of August.

If you know anyone who might be interested in a remote Director of Engineering or Sr. Engineering Manager with ten years experience leading global remote software teams, send me a message here and feel free to share my LinkedIn with them: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-rose-ross

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

From @NYTGuildTech@twitter.com:

"We formed our union because we want to make NYT a better place to work. Yesterday 100+ members took to Slack to tell @meredith_levien@twitter.com and @AGSNYT@twitter.com we’re tired of delay tactics in bargaining. Here is one member's post and in 🧵are a few of the ways management has been stalling.”

Source: https://twitter.com/NYTGuildTech/status/1692265438250402214

#Union #CollectiveBargaining

Today we will celebrate the important work our Tech Guild members have done over the last year to ensure contract negotiations are focused on improving our workplace through equity, transparency and respect. Unfortunately, management’s bargaining team has been operating in direct contradiction with their own stated goal of negotiating a contract in good faith. We’ve had 15 bargaining sessions, totalling only 42.5 hours of bargaining time. Management has crossed out large swaths of our proposals, asking us to give up our bargaining rights over mandatory subjects all while making unilateral changes to our working conditions away from the table. A.G. Sulzberger & Meredith Levien: we don’t believe this behavior is worthy of The New York Times. It goes against NYT’s core values of integrity and respect. We know you have the power to instruct your bargaining team to start negotiating in good faith, and today we implore you to do so. We formed our union because we want to make the Times a better workplace where every worker can thrive. We deserve protections and guarantees in a contract. Management must pick up the pace in bargaining if you truly mean to reach an agreement with us. So A.G. Sulzberger, Meredith Levien, Hannah Yang, Jason Sobel, Alex Hardiman, Kerri Crossan, Ryan Darcy, It's time to take bargaining seriously. That means longer, more frequent bargaining sessions and counter proposals that demonstrate your respect for our unit and our bargaining rights.

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

The longer I work in tech, the more I am convinced that if the industry doesn’t unionize soon, workers will lose the opportunity to truly change the world in positive ways.

“I got mine, screw you” is a terrible ethical framework- and yet VCs and Wall Street live by it.

We have to do better, but we can’t do it alone.

https://www.them.us/story/grindr-union-return-to-office

“Even as Grindr refuses to meet the demands of the workers that make the app run, the company is celebrating its growing earnings. According to a shareholder letter published by the company on Tuesday, the app’s revenue was $61.5 million in Q2 alone, resulting in a net income of over $22 million. Despite this, the company has still not voluntarily acknowledged the union. Rainbow capitalists — they’re just like the rest of them.”

#unionize #UnionBusting #LGBTQ #Grindr

Grindr United (with CODE-CWA) boosted:

#Grindr Tells Employees Looking to #Unionize to Return in Person or Lose Jobs https://bit.ly/44gZaTv

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