The Twitter account of a bookmarking site run by the leader of an anti-Trump activism group is asking employees of tech companies to leak their employment contracts to help strategize future action.
A Silicon Valley activist is asking techies to leak their employment contracts
“Tech workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your goddamned open-plan offices.”
Popular bookmarking site Pinboard, the creation of developer and activist Maciej Ceglowski, tweeted to its 38,000 followers Sunday night urging techies to discretely and securely send along paperwork signed with their companies.
The goal, Pinboard tweeted, is “to start the work of organizing tech employees. Some friendly labor lawyers will use these to strategize.”
Outside of Pinboard, Ceglowski organizes events for Tech Solidarity, a group that is working to mobilize tech employees against President Donald Trump, especially against the administration’s policies targeting Muslims.
Ceglowski confirmed in an email to Recode that he was seeking the contracts, but declined to share additional details such as further specifics on the types of contracts being sought.
Many tech workers are likely at-will employees, meaning they don’t sign contracts and can be fired at the discretion of their employers. They may, however, sign employee guidelines or rules they are expected to follow.
Agreements often reflect standard employment terms like salary, vesting, vacation policies, and non-compete clauses. These agreements usually reflect employment obligations already required by law.
Most employees work under the so-called “at-will” standard despite signing employment agreements. Executives hired for upper-level management will sometimes have a legal contract over and above standard employment protections.
Pinboard’s request seems to relate to the sort of workplace or labor organizing Ceglowski alluded to during a meeting of Tech Solidarity a few weeks back. “How long can these tech companies hold up against collective action?” he had asked the roughly 150 attendees of the meeting.
Pinboard echoed the point Sunday on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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