Reddit mods discuss forming a union and suing for back pay
Posted in r/ModCoord by u/BuckRowdy • 1,746 points and 657 comments
Won't work. It's a volunteer, unpaid position. They have no legs to stand on in this case. The only real course of action they have is just not giving Reddit their service at all. Stop going there, stop giving them clicks and traffic.
the moment reddit starting threatening to fire them and take over THEIR communities, ut became a job.
Yeah, this seems very unlikely to go anywhere other than in gaining media attention (which is a fair aim to have at this point).
I don't think the point to to actually get paid. I think the idea is, as you said, media attention, as well as investor attention. Who's going to want to invest in a company that's trying to unionize?
I thought unionize meant un-ion-izing things, like ions from molecules and metals.
Good luck to them. I dislike Reddit as much as the next guy, but this whole thing doesn't stand a chance. You do volunteer work nobody even asked you to do and then demand money? How does that make any sense at all?
About as much sense as building a company off free volunteer labor and then acting like you own those volunteers and the money they helped you earn
It doesn't take a ton of effort to make a website and an app, Lemmy is already hockey-sticking off entirely volunteer everything.
I have mixed feelings about this. I'd fire many of the bullies.
Out of principle I support this, but I very much doubt it will ever succeed.
I don't think they actually think they'll get backpaid, it's more the principle of the thing. You're saying Reddit isn't earning the money it should, how about all the free work mods have done over the years to make Reddit into anything worth monetising?
I don't think these people understand how the law works lol
Also a union for what? Posting on internet forums? Sssuuuurree...
I'm not sure you understand how the law works. Read "Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc." (https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-circuit/1706417.html), where unpaid interns who worked on the film "Black Swan" sued the production company. The interns argued that they were actually employees and thus entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA) and New York labour law. The court agreed with the interns, finding that they were essentially regular employees.
To contrast with an unsuccessful case, I present "Wang v. The Hearst Corporation" (https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-circuit/1882161.html), where unpaid interns at various magazines published by Hearst sued for wages. The court used a "primary beneficiary test" to determine whether the interns or the company were the primary beneficiaries of the arrangement. The court found that the interns were the primary beneficiaries, so they were not entitled to wages.
I think it would be hard for Reddit to argue that subreddit moderators are the primary beneficiaries of their labour, meaning if the mods unionise and bring a case, they might actually be successful.
There is a vast, vast difference between interns that are officially working in the company and volunteers that are just using the platform. I think it's impossible to argue that mods are employees and it's stated time and time in Reddit's terms that they can ban people and remove content as they please since it's their platform. This isn't any different than other social media. They're legally allowed to demote mods and control subs.
When reddit threatened to fire them and take over THEIR communities, it became a job and they became liable and employer