A majority of 70 workers at vigilante crime-reporting app Citizen have voted to form a union with the Communication Workers of America in an official election, becoming the latest in a string of tech companies to unionize in 2021.
The union organizers successfully won their election Monday and will next engage in negotiating a union contract through collective bargaining if the National Labor Relations Board certifies the election results, according to a CWA spokesperson.
The successful election follows a year of organizing that was spurred in part by employee anger after Citizen CEO Andrew Frame personally pushed for a bounty to find someone allegedly responsible for a setting a wildfire in California, according to a Motherboard report. When Citizen workers first filed a petition to unionize in September, the company's leadership called the union "meddling."
In an emailed statement a Citizen spokesperson told Protocol, "While we are assessing next steps on this initial tally, what we know now is that we’ve grown through this process, learning how we can better work together to deliver for our users.”
Update: This story was updated on December 14 with a statement from Citizen.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE