Sign in

John Chadfield

@joxn.bsky.social
867 followers 532 following 171 posts

Unionising tech workers in the UK. National Officer for Tech at Communication Workers Union. Co-founder of @utaw.tech Join a union. Get organised.

PostsRepliesMedia
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 11h
We hit 7000 members yesterday at @utaw.tech There is a future in grassroots trade unionism, and we're leading the way in tech.
131
Reposted by John Chadfield
United Tech & Allied Workers @utaw.tech · 15h
Multiverse employees organising with UTAW are lifting the lid on the effects of intrusive, inaccurate and remorseless monitoring by the company's AI model: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Teachers at Euan Blair firm report ‘horrendous stress’ after AI used to rate their work
Exclusive: Instructors at tech training company Multiverse hit out at ‘remorseless’ and ‘unnerving’ monitoring system
085
Reposted by John Chadfield
Martha Dark @marthadark.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Great to speak to @novaramedia.com about Tom Watson joining Palantir last night. Palantir is desperate to cling on to the NHS FDP contract in the face of mounting legitimate criticism and committees considering whether to exercise the break clause.
01110
Reposted by John Chadfield
Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Air gapping apparently wouldn't work in alignment tests because, I shit you not according to this OpenAI guy, one computer could run the CPU hot and tell the other airgapped one it is in trouble. I wish I could get paid $10m a year to say the stupidest cybersecurity thing you've ever heard
Tweet by Fireside Alpha, which reads:
OpenAI's Noam Brown says air-gapping the computers may not stop a misaligned AI, because two air-gapped machines can still talk by running a CPU hot and reading the temperature change.

There's a picture of a white guy with glasses, looking very concerned, under this text.
42545127
Reposted by John Chadfield
Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 10/09/2026
No one is here on Rockstar's side.
Protest outside the Glasgow tribunal centre for the IWGB Game Workers Rockstar workers who were fired.
011617
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
UK Wiki workers unionisation process well underway with @utaw.tech
0104
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This is a great read.
000
Reposted by John Chadfield
Digital And Techworker Alliance (DATA) @data-cwu.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Workers’ AI Counter Summit — October 10th & 11th We’re getting closer to the Workers’ AI Counter Summit hosted by the Digital and Techwork Alliance and we want you to be part of it. 👉 Register to attend: shorturl.at/GtWCc #WorkersAgainstSlopaganda #WorkersAiCounterSummit
133
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Wikimedia Foundation CEO "we support the employee’s right to unionize" Also Wikimedia Foundation CEO: *hires Littler-Mendelson, the largest union avoidance firm in the US* @wikimediafoundation.org
176
Reposted by John Chadfield
Tom Humberstone @tomhumberstone.com · 16/07/2026
The Luddites loved technology. They owned looms at home and would ‘mod’ them to count threads. Their battle was against worker exploitation. The degradation of their rights, safety and wages. They were against a handful of rich businessmen owning the means of production. Sound familiar?
6769432631
Reposted by John Chadfield
Andreas Kirsch @blackhc.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
A serious essay by me with many personal thoughts: utaw.tech/news/trust-i... It's on us as Google DeepMind employees to demand real governance, and our union's (@utaw.tech) recognition push is the most realistic path to get there before it's too late
utaw.tech
UTAW: Trust is not Governance
DeepMind has bet that a strong safety culture and good leadership built on trust are sufficient to withstand outside pressure. The bet has failed.
1185
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Good luck to companies trying to do this in 5 to 10 years when the junior to "gray beard" pipeline is truly broken.
29026
Reposted by John Chadfield
Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
There's something deliciously ironic about Ford--the assembly line innovator--having to hire back veteran engineers to fix quality problems induced by AI. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Ford Motor Co. took an unusually human approach to fixing its stubborn quality problems: It brought back what it calls “gray beard” engineers to help train younger staff and to reprogram the artificial intelligence tools that weren’t getting the job done.
8338102
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
BREAKING: Wikimedia staff in the UK to seek union recognition utaw.tech/news/wikiped...
utaw.tech
UTAW: UK Wikipedia Workers seek union recognition
Wikipedia workers in Britain request union recognition with UTAW, national branch of the CWU
092
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Palantir's NHS claims not stacking up: new report by @foxglovelegal.bsky.social in today's FT www.ft.com/content/a3e9...
ft.com
Palantir NHS claims rely on just a few hospitals
Data shows some trusts have delivered fewer operations since adopting the US company’s technology
010
Reposted by John Chadfield
Data Workers’ Inquiry @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
🚨 NEW INQUIRY!!! Our own Fasica Berhane Gebrekidan partners up with @utaw.tech to reveal the exploitation of trust and safety workers and the displacement of human labor through inadequate IA systems, this time at TikTok in London. ➡️ data-workers.org/fasica-utaw/
Illustrated cover of the report with the title “Unveiling: The Invisible Lives of TikTok Data Workers in London” on the top. Black background with a vertical slit through which people are looking out, as if looking through closed curtains. The people are blue, and the background peeking through is bright pink, mirroring the colors of the TikTok logo. The logo of the Data Workers’ Inquiry project is seen in the lower right corner.
063
Reposted by John Chadfield
Milagros Miceli @milamiceli.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Very proud of this collaboration with @utaw.tech, and delighted to see Fasica Berhane putting her exceptional reporting skills at the service of TikTok workers in London. Thanks @joxn.bsky.social for supporting the making of this report! ➡️ data-workers.org/fasica-utaw/
074
Reposted by John Chadfield
Usman T. Malik @usmantm.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
there is no horror horrific enough My god how do we even go on after this
13420
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
“Fundamentally, the push for unionization is about holding Google to its own ethical standards on AI, how they monetize it, what the products do, and who they work with” www.wired.com/story/google...
wired.com
Google DeepMind Workers Vote to Unionize Over Military AI Deals
UK staff of Google's AI research lab hope to block the use of the company's artificial intelligence models in military settings.
062
Reposted by John Chadfield
Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
“Every time we’ve asked for proof – show us the AI that’s replacing [content moderator] jobs – it never comes. And the media doesn’t look into it either. There’s a lot of client journalism around AI hype.” - @joxn.bsky.social of @utaw.tech graceblakeley.substack.com/p/ai-isnt-ta...
graceblakeley.substack.com
AI isn't taking your job. Your boss is.
Bosses are using AI as an excuse to crush worker power. But workers aren't going down without a fight.
041
Reposted by John Chadfield
United Tech & Allied Workers @utaw.tech · 29/04/2026
"These days, the tech companies are very much the bad guys. But one part of the old myth still clings on – the idea that tech jobs are good jobs" We feature in @graceblakeley.substack.com 's latest piece graceblakeley.substack.com/p/ai-isnt-ta...
graceblakeley.substack.com
AI isn't taking your job. Your boss is.
Bosses are using AI as an excuse to crush worker power. But workers aren't going down without a fight.
0137
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Sharing this fundraiser for Lulu and her husband, who have been displaced from Rafah and forced to endure life in tents. Every little bit helps Lulu and her 5 kids, who deserve so much better. chuffed.org/project/1582...
chuffed.org
Help Lolo and her family evacuate Gaza to safety
Hello friends. My name is Megan, and I am a close friend of Lulu and her family, who are currently residing in Khan Younis, Gaza, Palestine, originally from Rafah. The humanitarian crisis has weighed ...
100
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
@support.bsky.team why have you suspended @drfeda.bsky.social yet again? We see what you're doing to accounts from Gaza, it isn't going unnoticed.
010
Reposted by John Chadfield
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 09/04/2026
A French coder estimates that using Claude Code will account for 1 tonne of CO2 over a year - 10% of the average French individual carbon footprint. We have never encountered emissions-intensive software like this, ever before (with the sole exception of Bitcoin) www.linkedin.com/posts/gwitte...
15438231
Reposted by John Chadfield
Tribune @tribunemagazine.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Britain’s cost of living crisis was created by privatisation, which turned essentials into profit centres — universal basic services offer a way to bring costs down.
tribunemag.co.uk
Left Hand of the State
Britain’s cost of living crisis was created by privatisation, which turned essentials into profit centres — universal basic services offer a way to bring costs down.
2186
Reposted by John Chadfield
Kate @katemck.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
RIP Chuck Norris, I loved your guest appearance in Edward Said's Orientalism documentary as the stereotype of American racism
172
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
This 'London School War' - microtargetting of children between 11 and 16 encouraging them to 'jump' other school kids - campaign on TikTok is exactly the kind of thing that could have been avoided by having not sacked 400+ content moderators in London.
011
Reposted by John Chadfield
Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
'Briggs and his Goldman Sachs colleagues recently said that investment spending on AI made “basically zero” difference in U.S. economic growth last year.' You don't say.
Screenshot of the article:

Prominent economists, including from Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, calculate that the AI buildup was directly responsible not for 92 percent or 39 percent of gains to the U.S. economy in 2025, but as little as zero.
“It was a very intuitive story,” said Joseph Briggs, who jointly leads global economics investment research at Goldman Sachs. “That maybe prevented or limited the need to actually dig deeper into what was happening.”
Briggs and his Goldman Sachs colleagues recently said that investment spending on AI made “basically zero” difference in U.S. economic growth last year.
It’s clear that the huge spending on AI is adding to the U.S. economy, but the available economic data doesn’t neatly capture its effects. The debating economists and the slippery data suggest that if the technology does start to reshape the economy, it may be challenging to detect and clearly measure. That may leave political and corporate leaders to choose the numbers that fit their preferred narratives on how AI is changing American life and work.
The struggle to even measure what is happening today suggests there may be years of bickering ahead over whether AI is creating a golden age of prosperity or a path to mass unemployment and impoverishment.
3489
Reposted by John Chadfield
United Tech & Allied Workers @utaw.tech · 19/02/2026
If you're in the UK, we are that tech union :)
02210
Reposted by John Chadfield
Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
The Simpson's Monorail episode. The FOMO is the grift.
511232
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
It's really hard to frame improvements to workers rights as a scary thing, but bless them The Economist will give it a shot. www.economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
Britain’s trade-union laws are returning to the 1970s
Union bosses intend to use their new freedoms
1134
Reposted by John Chadfield
ASLEF @aslefunion.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
📢 The Tories are trying to amend the Railways Bill to remove workers' right to strike. They want to IMPOSE minimum service levels on the railway and REPEAL provisions in the Employment Rights Act 2025. We're lobbying to ensure their ridiculous, anti-worker amendments don't become law.
Grainy VHS image of Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch with text reading: "...did someone hit rewind? The Tories are trying to curtail your right to strike. Again."
055
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Yer da uses AI on LinkedIn
030
Reposted by John Chadfield
Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Meta now forcing all employees to use AI tools and tying it to employee performance, according to @theinformation.com. HR said "this is not an activity tracker—it’s an impact-evidence starter" That's a fun way to rebrand workplace surveillance.
Businesses such as Microsoft are increasingly nudging their employees to utilize AI to get more done. Others are forcing the issue.

One of the biggest firms to take the more aggressive path is Meta Platforms, which at the end of December had 78,865 employees.

At a companywide meeting last month, Meta leaders briefed employees on a new performance review and bonus system closely tied to their AI usage, according to a recording of the meeting. 

For instance, the company’s AI-powered performance tracker, Checkpoint, looks at how many lines of code are generated by software engineers using AI tools, along with over 200 other data points. They include the number of errors or bugs associated with engineers’ code; the amount of code an engineer wrote themselves without AI.

Checkpoint is supposed to reduce the time it takes to prepare performance reviews, according to the meeting recording. It uses data from tools employees already use, such as Google Workspace to provide a summary of an employee’s work.

“To be clear, this is not an activity tracker—it’s an impact-evidence starter,” said one HR leader during the meeting. Managers then evaluate employees’ impact based on these checkpoint summaries and assign a rating.

To help employees accomplish such goals, Meta has expanded their access to AI models made by other firms, such as Google’s Gemini 3 Pro and OpenAI’s GPT-5, alongside Meta’s own Llama models. Employees use such models for coding and other tasks.
2426688
Reposted by John Chadfield
Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Ah, from a company that is ignoring an upswing of organizing baristas, we have: chatbots
37223
Reposted by John Chadfield
Phil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
These are just some kids trying to live their lives. They ought not to be hungry like this. Their parents ought to not have to spend all day begging for money for food.
Muhammed, eating some old bread.Yassin, looking up at the camera.Ghaith, outside in the sun, in his cute yellow onesie.
31120
Reposted by John Chadfield
United Tech & Allied Workers @utaw.tech · 29/01/2026
Breaking: Apple required to proceed with recognition ballot after months of attempting to block and union-busting activities. CAC Decision: www.gov.uk/government/p...
After months of stalling from Apple, the CAC have imposed access arrangements to allow UTAW-CWU officials to meet with staff at the Cambridge Apple Retail Store ahead of their upcoming ballot for union recognition.

Inititally Apple had refused reasonable access to the building for union reps, while continuing to use regular staff meetings and one-on-ones with staff to try and discourage them from supporting their union.

Apple are now required to give UTAW-CWU officials access to the store for two staff meetings, two days of drop-in surgeries, use of a noticeboard, space for leaflets, use of internal email to share ballot information, and the ability to post materials to staff ahead of the ballot.

The ballot will now proceed during a 20-day period starting February.

utaw.tech/apple

UTAW and CWU logos.
095
Reposted by John Chadfield
Anna Orridge @anna-orridge.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
If they really want to force us to use AI whether we like it or not, they'd better work on ensuring it doesn't cause every app it's injected into to crash or otherwise malfunction lol.
1151
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
We've some of the smartest technologists in the world who focus on public services, and they definitely don't work at Meta.
020
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Hahaha haven't seen the 'two pizza test' referenced by anyone for quite some time. Makes sense an MP is now spouting it as tried-and-tested doctrine. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Starmer’s chief secretary reveals plans to bust ‘the sludge’ in Whitehall
Under-performing civil servants will be sacked and taskforces brought in to solve problems, says Darren Jones
000
Reposted by John Chadfield
Winnie the Pooh (Official) @indianawalsh.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Gary Larson: In my cartoon I invented Cow Tools as a cautionary tale Cows: At long last, we have created the Cow Tools from classic newspaper comic Cow Tools
77140064011
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Content moderators deserve more respect from platforms. That's what they ask for first, not pay, not more holidays but respect. Instead, moderators at TikTok were given the axe for unionising. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Sacked TikTok workers in UK launch legal action over ‘union busting’
Moderators accuse social media firm of unfair dismissal after it fired hundreds in UK just before vote to form union
042
Reposted by John Chadfield
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
New: meet ELITE, the Palantir app ICE is using to find neighborhoods to raid. Map interface; officers search for immigrants; click person to bring up individual dossier. This is clearest link between what Palantir is building and ICE's activities on the ground yet www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
404media.co
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
9429761912
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Brazen union-busting as entire Ubisoft studio in Canada is shuttered two weeks after voting to unionise. aftermath.site/ubisoft-hali...
aftermath.site
Ubisoft Halifax Union To 'Pursue Every Legal Recourse' After Studio Closes Weeks After Union Vote
"We will be looking for Ubisoft to show us that this had nothing to do with the employees joining a union," a Ubisoft Halifax worker said.
141
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
We all said not only this would happen, but it would be the thing that eventually lands GenAI in the tabloid press for non client journalism reasons.
041
John Chadfield @joxn.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Would anyone read an account of all the dumb/illegal/unethical/bullying that a major fruit-themed company inflicts upon its workers?
120
Reposted by John Chadfield
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
I am pleased to announce that I have commandeered my neighbor's home. This home will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, to ensure it is used to benefit my neighbor and me! Thank you for your attention to this matter!
499281314383
Reposted by John Chadfield
United Tech & Allied Workers @utaw.tech · 25/12/2025
Strategic layoffs have been obviously cynically motivated to us in the union movement (especially those that cite 'AI') for some time. Seems like Goldman Sachs is catching up. fortune.com/2025/12/25/g...
fortune.com
Layoff announcements used to boost stock prices. Not anymore says Goldman Sachs | Fortune
Analysts ran the numbers and found a surprising change in how investors are reacting to layoff announcements.
043
Reposted by John Chadfield
The CWU @cwunews.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
CWU members from our @utaw.tech branch take legal action against TikTok for union busting news.sky.com/story/tiktok...
news.sky.com
TikTok faces legal action over moderator cuts
TikTok is being accused of threatening safety workers with redundancy days before they were due to vote on forming a union.
0105