Technology as Leverage: Worker Framing Strategies in Technological Labor Disputes

• In Event: 50462 - Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6: Labor

Abstract

This study examines how workers frame claims over workplace technology governance during labor disputes through discourse analysis of four technology-centered strikes in the U.S. between 2006-2015. Drawing on Marx's theory of alienation, I develop a four-part typology of worker claims: (1) control over labor products, (2) proximate technological knowledge, (3) personal technological harm, and (4) community technological harm. The research analyzes 821 news articles covering strikes where technology was the primary issue rather than traditional concerns like wages. Two illustrative cases demonstrate how workers leverage these frames. In the 2007 Taxi and Limousine Commission strike, drivers protested GPS and credit card payment mandates by emphasizing how these technologies violated their autonomy as independent contractors and failed technically—showcasing frames of labor product control and proximate knowledge. The 2015 Consolidated Nuclear Security strike framed pension and healthcare changes through personal harm (workers' exposure to radiation) and community harm (national security implications of inadequate nuclear weapons handling). The findings reveal how Marx's alienation theory provides a framework for understanding technological disruption in work processes. When effectively framed, technological change can lead to worker unification rather than just alienation. The cases demonstrate that new workplace technologies present opportunities for workers to articulate their power, expertise, and agency. This analysis contributes to understanding how technological change creates transitional moments that workers can leverage in labor negotiations and how different framing strategies succeed in various contexts.

Author

• Natalia Luka, University of California-Berkeley