this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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I replied to this type of comment in another thread. Reddit is governed by California law. There may be something here, since reddit was benefiting off of free labor. Volunteering might not actually matter, since moderators were putting in actual hours for the benefit of reddit, while not receiving anything back. Without mods, reddit wouldn’t have the power to moderate all the subs, thus, reddit relied on mods to do unpaid company work which would have cost reddit millions per year if they were to pay moderators. I think there’s a thin case here.
The real power would be in the union anyway. If they could gather the majority of mods and they actually went through with a strike, it would be a huge test for Reddit. They would have to bring in a ton of scabs or cave to the mods. Scabs may work in the king run, but it would also destroy every community they did it to.
So the real question is whether these mods will actually act as a union or will it's members buckle in fear of being replaced.
I would guess that, since their livelihoods aren't on the line, mods would be far less likely to buckle than typical workers - if they can get organized in the first place.
Not sure we need a formal union, just an absence of powerhungry idiots who are more than happy to replace the mods with integrity that Reddit removes. If no ones willing to step up they really can’t remove mods in a meaningful way.
There's a lot of jurisprudence around firing someone for striking if it's a union affair. The way Reddit has started going nuclear replacing mods is exactly like union-busting minus the union.
It might be easier to show/argue some sort of business relationship between mods and reddit if there's a formal union. Who knows if it would stand up in court, but imagine if reddit got hit with an injunction regarding forcing a big sub to reopen. A dozen more of the biggest subs might close immediately in solidarity.