The Rise and Fall of the Tech Worker Labor Movement

Despite the infamous “dot-com crash” of 2000, the allure of the tech sector as a progressive career path remained undiminished. In fact, the tech industry continued to hold a strong position in the job market with promising roles for engineers, designers, and professionals across various sectors being increasingly prevalent. For some, like MIT PhD student JS Tan SM ’22 who graduated from Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design in 2015, the industry provided a platform to build a better world through technology.

Many industry folk, including Tan, were driven by the belief that internet technology had the potential to usher in a future more progressive than the present. This idea was echoed by Google with its famous motto “don’t be evil,” an informal philosophy and conduct guideline which the company has since abandoned.

However, with the onset of the Trump era, some tech employees started questioning if these companies, indeed, intended to foster a more democratic world. Issues arose when these tech employees publicly contradicted their employer’s activities which, according to Tan, resulted in a backlash against these dissenting workers.

Perhaps this is what inspired Tan to team up with former tech industry colleague Clarissa Redwine and document the rise and fall of the tech worker labor movement. Their book, “Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry” (Haymarket Books, 2026), offers an insightful chronicle of the movement’s development, strategic actions, and influence on Silicon Valley’s labor politics.

In 2017, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending entry to the US for nationals from certain Muslim countries, the tech industry faced notable upheaval. Tan believes that this event ignited an industry-wide initiative to oppose and resist such policies.

Following years of walkouts and protests against their employers, tech workers seemed to effectively influence certain corporate decisions. The most noteworthy instance being Google’s decision to not renew its Project Maven contract, a Pentagon initiative employing artificial intelligence to analyze drone footage, after receiving strong opposition from their employees.

Despite initial success, Tan maintains that this worker leverage, unfortunately, could not withstand the onslaught of various factors. According to Tan, interest rate hikes in 2022 led the tech industry to lose substantial market valuation and curtail costs, especially employee salaries. Additionally, the advent of agentic AI coding systems resulted in a distressing job environment, with many fearing insecurity and job cuts.

In the world of academia, Tan pursues research about the tech sector’s political economy. Tan, along with co-author Redwine, who herself has been significantly involved in labor movements in the tech sector, wrote this book to shed light on the circumstances leading to the weakened state of the tech worker movement.

Both authors offer an elucidated chronicle of the ups and downs of the movement in their book, hoping to inspire tech workers to participate actively in shaping the technologies they build. The book’s writing experience, Tan’s first, was “exhilarating,” indicating his appreciation for research and writing in academia.

A launch event for the book, “Against Tech Oligarchy,” is set to take place on Oct. 26, co-hosted by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

If you’re intrigued by AI automation possibilities for your company, you may want to explore options with implementi.ai.

For more details, do check out the original news piece hier.