Workers Governing Digital Technologies: Collective Strategies Across Contexts

About the event

This two-day in-person event will bring together 20 invited speakers from Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and the United States to exchange insights on worker-led governance of digital technologies—including platforms, data, and AI—through collective bargaining, co-op formation, and policy reform. This workshop will feature roundtables on key themes such as collective bargaining, co-op formation, and policy reform in industries including culture, technology, delivery, and media. In addition to these discussions, participants will engage in collective reflection sessions and take part in a walking tour along an Indigenous trail. The event will be conducted entirely in English.

This workshop is co-funded by the SSHRC Connection Program, the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), the Creative Labour and Critical Futures project (CLCF/ UTSC), the Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology / Informational Sovereignty and Disputes (INCT/DSI), the Institute for Inclusive Economies and Sustainable Livelihoods (IIESL/ UTSC), the Centre for Learning, Social Economy & Work at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (CLSEW/ OISE/UofT), and the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI/ UofT).

Summary

From the growing gig-economy workforce to mounting fears of AI-induced job displacement, the world of work in Canada, and globally, is undergoing profound technological transformations. This project facilitates knowledge exchange between researchers and worker organizations, and among worker organizations, regarding strategies to strengthen workers’ voice in the uses to which digital technologies are put at work. It prioritizes worker-centered approaches, or perspectives and practices that forefront the concerns, agency, and experiences of workers and their organizations and allies, including trade unions, worker co-operatives (i.e., businesses owned and governed by those who are employed in them), grassroots worker collectives, and policy specialists. By “workers governing digital technologies” we mean organizations, experiences, and mechanisms in and through which workers collectively influence decisions over how digital technologies – such as AI, data and platforms – are implemented in their work.

Bringing together community-engaged researchers, innovative worker organizations, and policy specialists from Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and the US, the project combines a public event and outreach activities focused on three objectives: (1) facilitate exchange among worker organizations with experience in worker-centred approaches to governing technologies via collective bargaining, co-operative formation, and policy reform; (2) disseminate workshop participants’ insights through community media resources; and (3) produce a policy brief outlining an agenda to advance research and action in the field of workers governing technologies. 

The countries upon which this project focuses have been selected for their key contributions to this debate. In Canada, there are significant emerging co-ops, union initiatives, and grassroots interventions aiming to give working people greater say over technology in the digital economy. The US has seen precedent-setting protections surrounding AI in Collective Bargaining Agreements, and is home to some of the most prominent platform co-ops in the world. Brazil and Argentina are leading countries in the global platform cooperativism movement, especially in connecting co-operatives and social movements in the delivery and technology sectors as well as trying to promote worker-friendly policy reform in the gig economy. Similarly, Spain has pioneering experience in both policy development and collective bargaining around workers governing digital platforms. 

This project explores workers’ experiences of governing technologies through the above-noted three strategies, i.e., collective bargaining, co-op formation, and policy reform. Through a 2-day workshop and subsequent community media resources, the Connection project will allow: exchange of experiences among workers governing technologies within worker organizations as well as with academic researchers with expertise in worker organizing in the fields of platform labour, the gig economy, and digital media industries; disseminate lessons from experiences of workers governing technologies among wider practitioner and research communities; and mobilize knowledge about workers governing technologies through a series of video profiles of organizations and strategies, and a public-facing text outlining an agenda for future research and action. By facilitating knowledge exchange, disseminating experiences, and proposing a research agenda, the project lays the groundwork for a transnational network of researchers and practitioners focused on workers governing technologies, a practice that is essential for shaping futures of work that meaningfully includes and materially benefits working people.

Objectives

(1) Facilitate the exchange of experiences in worker-led approaches to governing technologies across contexts such as platform labour, the gig economy, and media industries. This knowledge exchange will be realized through a public, in-person two-day workshop at the University of Toronto in September 2025. The workshop focuses on three key strategies workers use to govern technologies at work: a) collective bargaining; b) co-operative formation; and c) policy reform.

(2) Disseminate insights generated at the workshop through public-facing digital media resources. To enhance access to knowledge about how workers can contribute to the governance of technologies at work, we will create and distribute 10 short videos, in three languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish), that profile organizations and strategies from diverse national and sectoral contexts, as well as a series of op-eds.

(3) Produce a policy brief proposing an agenda for future research and action in the field of workers governing technologies. Based on community needs and visions identified during the workshop, this document will be shared with stakeholder worker organizations, policy specialists, and scholarly networks. The brief will serve as a foundation for future research collaborations between workshop participants.