Early on Wednesday morning UK-based Wikimedia Foundation staff received an email from the WMF executive with an update on the UK union recognition process and a request from WMF/Safeguard Global (SG) to narrow the proposed bargaining unit’s scope.

We, the WWU-UK branch wish to add some additional context, and explain we have moved to the statutory recognition process – as we had announced here on 10 August.

Timeline

On 24 June the request for voluntary recognition of the proposed UK bargaining unit was submitted, WMF/SG requested negotiation about that request, which we accepted on 7 July. Once agreed to, that period must last at least 20 working days.

As described on the government’s website, negotiations are for discussing “which employees are in the bargaining unit” and “whether the union should be recognised”. The email from the WMF executive stated that SG has requested to reduce the scope, and UTAW-CWU has not agreed. That is correct, but there is important context:

No substantive questions were received from SG throughout that 20-day period. Notably this included during the initial ACAS-mediated negotiation meeting. Therefore, on Thursday, 6 August (after the minimum negotiation period had elapsed), UTAW-CWU submitted an application to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) to begin the statutory recognition process for WWU-UK. Safeguard only queried our inclusion of managers in the bargaining unit, late in the evening after Safeguard had been informed the statutory filing had been submitted. Furthermore, SG had been informed during the negotiation meeting held the previous week that this would occur. It was not a surprise. Importantly, opening the statutory process does not close the door on continuing the negotiations.

Scope

WMF/SG indeed have requested narrowing the scope of the proposed bargaining unit to exclude managers and those with access to confidential information. In other words, limiting which UK workers would be represented through collective bargaining. The justification given is that this would match the scope of the bargaining unit agreed for the USA branch (represented by CWA).

WWU wishes to support the widest possible scope of colleagues – for consistency and equity within our organisation. It is the international norm that managers can be members of unions, however, the USA is an outlier in that regard and does not legally permit management in their unions. Our USA Branch would request to include management in their scope if it were possible.

Meanwhile, the UK branch has proposed a bargaining unit covering all UK-based Wikimedia Foundation staff employed through Safeguard Global. We have proposed this so-called “wall to wall” scope intentionally:

  • In the UK, as with much of the world, it is perfectly standard and legal for managers to be members of unions. We do not want to restrict their rights based on the lowest-common-demoninator of American labour law.
  • Employment conditions provided by the WMF (including things like severance, pension, leave) apply to all staff equally regardless of level (or location). Including management in bargaining about these conditions is therefore consistent with the way the WMF already operates.
  • Our membership already includes colleagues in management and therefore there is already a supermajority of “membership density” in our proposed bargaining unit scope.

  • It is what we agreed to in the anonymous vote that all UK staff participated in back in June (for whether to proceed with the UK unionisation request). In that vote, over 70% of all UK WMF staff participated and those votes were unanimously supportive. It included the following proposed eligibility:

    All “requisition number” staff of the WMF who are employed in the UK are eligible to join the union, and all are eligible to participate in this vote. In practice this means: if you have a contract for working at the Wikimedia Foundation via Safeguard UK as the Employer of Record - you are eligible.

With regard to the other scope reduction, “employees with access to confidential information”: That includes any and all staff and therefore is a distinction without a difference. It has also never been mentioned by Safeguard.

What happens now

Our CAC application does not end the voluntary recognition process. As WMF leadership also noted the email, mediated discussions with Safeguard through ACAS can continue alongside the statutory process. We remain open to those discussions and would welcome reaching voluntary recognition promptly and constructively. If the parties cannot agree on the bargaining unit, then CAC can determine the appropriate bargaining unit as part of the statutory process.

This email is also an acknowledgement that the WMF is indeed a direct stakeholder in the UK unionisation process. We therefore reiterate the request for WMF leadership to attend the mediated ACAS discussions alongside their Safeguard Global representatives. This will speed up the process.

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The description of WMF employment conditions, which applies equally to employees in all countries at all levels, has this major disclaimer:

The Wikimedia Foundation reserves the right to modify the descriptions of benefits, policies and procedures in these Global Guidelines at any time without prior notification unless prohibited by applicable law.

We believe that, for a values-driven organisation, the standard for whether our employment conditions might unilaterally and immediately change, should be higher than merely not-illegal. We believe that all Wikimedia Foundation employees deserve a meaningful representation in the decisions that affect their working lives – regardless of their country, role, or level – and that doing so will bring stability to the organisation.

-- WWU-UK Branch August 14, 2026