A group of employees of Citizen , the controversial startup that warns of crimes in real time, has decided to take the plunge and create a workers’ union to ensure compliance with their labor rights by the company.
Through a statement released by the company itself, it confirmed that a considerable majority of its eligible workers had exercised their right to vote and expressed their intention to create and join their union in elections for the National Labor Relations Board, according to company spokeswoman Beth Allen. The results of the vote have not yet been certified by the competent body, but that is the next step before the union begins negotiating agreements with Citizen. The application software allows you to receive and issue alerts in real time and contact the police. In addition, you can share the information of the recorded incidents with the users close to the events.
A very controversial app
This shift in employment paradigm within the company comes on the heels of a wave of very negative headlines and reviews for Citizen and its CEO, Andrew Frame. At the end of 2021, the company for the first time awarded a €30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspected arson suspect. However, the person on whom the first suspicions had fallen finally turned out not to be responsible for the fire.
The startup, which was created four years ago, had used a new function in its application called OnAir, which allows information about the alleged suspects to be transmitted, but on that occasion, the company had to go out and give explanations, and through a statement broadcast from his own website, he acknowledged that in that case he did not follow his own verification protocols before circulating the information about the alleged arsonist.
The workers reportedly made the decision to unionize out of fear of losing their jobs in response to another common company practice: subcontracting employees to perform some functions within the company. Workers said they hope to promptly negotiate a contract that addresses the serious issues they face, including mismanagement of core operations and the negative impact the app is having on themselves and society; in addition to salary discrepancies with the company’s management, with subcontracting and with the progressive elimination of some of their labor rights, such as the right to sick leave.
The Citizen union, which is part of the Citizen Central Operations Union, represents hundreds of thousands of employees of public and private companies, including the parent company of the famous news network CNN, and the American telecommunications giant AT&T. “Citizen will advance in the mission of making the world a safer place,” assured Citizen after learning of the unionization decision by its workers.
