Union members working for the Chinese social media platform TikTok employed in the Berlin headquarters, took strike action on 23 July as the start the start of a dispute with the company over the loss of 150 content moderators and content outreach workers being replaced by AI. These workers often handle violent, offensive, fake, racist and pornographic content say they are low paid and have precarious employment. To add insult to injury, they have apparently trained the AI systems which will replace them.
The job losses include the phasing out of ‘Trust and Safety’ department of TikTok who are responsible keeping the platform safe, as well as the Live department, which is responsible for contact with content producers.
TikTok strike organised by ver.di
Members of the two million strong German services and media union ver.di undertook a ‘warning strike’ against ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. The union says ByteDance refuses to negotiate a collective severance agreement under Germany’s dismissal protection law, which says that any employee who is being laid off due to urgent reasons should receive 50% of their monthly earnings for each year that the person worked for the company.
Union members are seeking severance payments equal to three years’ salary per employee and a 12-month extension of the notice period. They say it is “crucial not only to recognise their skilled labour but also to help them retrain and transition into new careers – particularly necessary for workers whose residency status in Germany depends upon employment”.
Lucas Krentel, deputy regional head of ver.di’s media division in Berlin-Brandenburg, says: “It is disrespectful of TikTok to shirk all social responsibility and even refuse to negotiate with us. The employees are sending a clear signal that they will not accept this. They are going on strike and, in doing so, becoming pioneers of union organising in the platform economy.”
TikTok and content moderation
ver.di says that by outsourcing content moderation, TikTok evades responsibility for fair pay, adequate psychological support and stable working conditions – further degrading already demanding work. Content moderators also emphasise that AI cannot handle culturally sensitive decisions, and human oversight is essential to a safe platform.
In response, TikTok said it is in discussion with its statutory works council (Betriebsrat) about a proposal to consolidate their trust and safety team “into fewer locations to streamline workflows and improve efficiency”.
TikTok only agreed to a works council under German law in October 2022, after workers joined ver.di. The union has members on the Betriebsrat, but there has been dissatisfaction among employees at the Berlin site, notably content moderators and outreach workers, because of poor pay and stressful working conditions.
Recognising the problems coming down the track, ver.di called a meeting of moderators from TikTok and Meta (Facebook) to formulate their demand for better pay, better recognition for their skills, the right to organise, and to standardise compensation packages for workers laid off by the big digi-tech companies.
If ByteDance does not come to the bargaining table, ver.di says “a longer-term strike could come later this month”.
Human talent vs AI
TikTok is one of a number of companies that have adopted AI in place of human talent.
Duolingo, the language learning platform, recently came under fire after its CEO revealed its plans to become ‘AI first’, announcing it would phase out contractors that do “work that AI can handle”.
The Swedish fin-tech company Klarna replaced 700 of its workers with AI, but has since reversed the decision. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski explained that replacing employees with AI has led to “lower quality” customer service. The company is now looking to rehire “human talent”.
The AI revolution is taking hold and some companies are preparing the ground to replace human talent with AI. It is worrying that TikTok and other digi-tech companies that operate in countries which have generally high levels of union membership and decent labour laws, are now at the forefront of replacing human talent with AI.
This will be a big concern for UK unions. Levels of union membership in digi-tech companies are low and unions are finding it difficult to grow membership and establish union organisation where managements block attempts to organise workers. Unions like Unite are focusing on organising workers in the digi-tech sector, notably in London, and are demanding tougher measures and protections from the government’s employment relations bill, including ensuring unions can access workplaces to organise workers.
