July 21, 2023
Grindr Staffers Are Looking to Unionize
Emell Adolphus READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Grindr Inc. employees are reportedly petitioning to unionize amid a recent wave of tech worker layoffs reported Time Magazine.
Workers of the gay dating company filed a unionization petition with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board Thursday and reportedly announced the campaign to management during a Zoom call.
"Pro-union staff say they've signed up the vast majority of a proposed bargaining unit of around 100 employees, including cloud engineering, IT, design, marketing and quality assurance workers," Time reports.
A mission statement from the petitioning employees reads, "As members and allies of communities that are systematically oppressed, we know that strength lies in working together, not alone. We're already all in this together: we just want to DTR," meaning to "define the relationship."
Unionizing will secure existing benefits, such as trans-inclusive health care, and help establish new protections such as pay transparency and job security, according to the employees.
"We want a company built for queer people, not one built to extract wealth from queer people," the employees said in their letter. "And we want to build it together, united."
Responding to the position, Grindr spokesperson Patrick Lenihan wrote in an email, "We respect our employees' rights and point of view, and we will continue to work together to make Grindr a great place to work for all."
If you remember Grindr was sold by the Chinese firm Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. in 2020 after U.S. regulators said the company's Chinese ownership posed national security concerns. The company then went public last year after a merger with Tiga Acquisition Corp.
As of March this year, the app has more than 12.8 million monthly active users.
"Workers across industries are realizing that they should have a say in the conditions of their workplace," said Grindr product manager Quinn McGee, a member of the organizing committee. "This idea is having a resurgence, that workers can come together to make sure we can protect each other from the vicissitudes of the current state of things."
