Chaotic Vigilante App Citizen Might Get a Union, and the Bosses Aren’t Happy

Employees of Citizen, the app that dispatches rogue nightcrawlers to broadcast crime scenes, are unionizing. As Vice first reported, a National Labor Relations Board submitting reveals that 69 staff from the on-brand “Central Ops Department” have petitioned to hitch Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Central ops employees are those who, amongst different issues, directly communicate with customers by means of the app’s dubiously dependable disaster hotline. According to LinkedIn, Citizen has between 51 and 200 staff.

We have little extra element, and the CWA declined to remark. But Citizen is strongly against the organizing effort, and in a press release shared with Gizmodo, a spokesperson characterised union illustration as intruding on firm turf. “As a dynamic, high-growth, and innovative company leveraging technology in moments of crisis,” they stated, “we are best positioned to address challenges and grow together as a Citizen team without meddling from an outside union.”

It additionally used the frequent tactic of insisting that Citizen already provides staff a lot, offering “above market compensation, full benefits, stock options, and career opportunities.” But these aren’t causes to not unionize; the purpose is that the employer shouldn’t have sole energy to determine what staff do and don’t get, topic to vary at will.

Management has made some questionable choices lately—setting off a manhunt, as an example. Earlier this yr, Citizen put out a $30,000 bounty for anybody who hunted down a (wrongly-accused) suspected arsonist behind the Pacific Palisades brushfire, broadcasting a photograph. Motherboard reported that CEO Andrew Frame informed staff through Slack to “FIND THIS FUCK,” and “LETS GET THIS GUY BEFORE MIDNIGHT HES GOING DOWN.” According to Recode, the printed amassed over a million views.

Employees talking to Motherboard described the ambiance of the corporate that livestreams shootings, fires, and automobile wrecks as “an anxiety sweatshop” and reported that it prioritizes freaking out customers over checking the particulars. They additionally anxious that Citizen plans to outsource their jobs to employees overseas who take heed to police scanners and add them to the app’s incident map.

Citizen staff now await an NLRB election. If they get 50% plus one vote, they’ll win the suitable to discount with Citizen by means of the union.

Are you a Citizen worker with a tip? Comments? Get in contact at wkimball@gizmodo.com