Union members from Kickstarter rallied on Friday to demand the Greenpoint firm reinstate employees fired by the crowdfunding firm in what the union characterized as illegal retaliation for organizing a strike last year.
Local elected officials joined members Kickstarter United NYC-OPEIU Local 153 on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall to ask the firm to hire back four employees.
The terminations came after Kickstarter United secured a landmark contract following a 42-day strike in November 2025. The contract, widely considered to be one of the strongest labor agreements in the tech industry, included a codified four-day workweek, strong protections against the use of artificial intelligence to displace workers, and an escalating salary floor tied to cost of living, according to the union.
On February 11, Kickstarter management announced the termination of four union members and the reassignment of several others out of the bargaining unit, offering no business-need justification for the decisions, according to the union.
"The retaliation Kickstarter has taken against these employees is unconscionable," said Zak Thompson, a shop steward. "These are people who fought tooth and nail for a good contract for our union, and we're not going down without a fight here either. We're pursuing every avenue available to us to get them reinstated."
Among those terminated was Jason Featheringham, who alleged that Kickstarter transferred his work maintaining the company's design system to outside contractors using AI, a direct violation of the AI and contractor protections negotiated in the new contract.
"We bargained for some of the strongest AI and contractor protections in the tech industry, specifically to prevent management from hollowing out our unit, and within three months of ratifying that contract, Kickstarter did exactly that," Featheringham said. "They created a brand new team to own the design system I built and maintained, handed my work over to outside contractors using AI, and called it a business decision."
The union has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board and multiple grievances related to the company's use of non-union contractors and AI to undermine bargaining unit work.
When workers organize, bargain, and win, that victory is supposed to mean something, said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
"By firing these employees, Kickstarter is not only violating a contract it agreed to, but directly attacking workers’ right to organize,” he said. “Every worker who has ever considered collective action is watching what happens here, and we have to show them that Brooklyn backs unions. This borough won’t stand by and let corporations bend the law in retaliation—this victory already belongs to the workers. Now it’s time for Kickstarter to uphold their end of the bargain.”
Elected officials, including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Member Lincoln Restler, and others, also denounced the firings.
