Kickstarter United-OPEIU 153 Workers Authorize Strike Demanding Four-Day Workweek and Minimum Salary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 26, 2025
Contact: Michael Nitzky, michael.nitzky@omc.com
Kickstarter United-OPEIU 153 Workers Authorize Strike Demanding Four-Day Workweek and Minimum Salary
(New York, NY) – After months of negotiations with management have failed to reach a resolution, 85% of Kickstarter United (KSRU) members have voted to authorize a strike to begin on Thursday, October 2nd at 8 a.m., unless management can reach a fair resolution. Kickstarter workers are represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153. The key issues: protecting Kickstarter’s existing four-day, 32-hour workweek and establishing a minimum salary that provides a livable wage.
The current 3-year agreement covering 59 community support specialists, trust and safety analysts, marketing professionals, software engineers, and other tech workers expired in July 2025. The KSRU bargaining committee has bargained with Kickstarter management since April 2025 to reach a tentative agreement. Negotiations at the table have slowed on compensation and working hours articles. Management has rejected every proposal for a minimum salary and insists on retaining the right to return to a five-day, 40-hour workweek. The current four-day workweek allows flexibility for members and it’s the reason many agreed to join Kickstarter in the first place. Legislation has also been introduced in the New York State Assembly that would establish a four-day week pilot program. The call for a minimum salary of $85,000 corresponds with what is considered Low Income in New York City ($87,100 for 2024).
“After working across a few companies in the high-pressure, high-stress role that is product management, finding an opening at Kickstarter was like a breath of fresh air. Not only was the company a mission-driven public benefit corporation (PBC) that helped fund creative ideas, but the role here offered groundbreaking benefits like the four-day workweek, which was and is still pretty revolutionary in the tech space. AND the role was unionized?! I was beyond excited to join Kickstarter, despite a significant pay cut from my prior role. Many of my coworkers and I joined Kickstarter for these exact reasons, and we are hoping beyond hope that leadership will live up to their promise of putting people above profit.”
– Hillary Taverna, Senior Product Manager, Kickstarter
“As the sponsor of legislation calling for a four day work week, because our bodies deserve leisure, our bodies deserve rest, our bodies deserve creativity. We don’t deserve to be micromanaged, that’s what we are fighting for in my bill because we need to protect our workforce. The time is here, the time is now to tell management to Kick Rocks, said Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest.
In a moment in our country where we are seeing folks lose the fundamental rights that we have been counting on, we have to look to history and remember that it's actually unions that won most of the rights that we have in this country. It's unions like Kickstarter United that stood up and said, ‘Enough is enough, and we deserve more, because we have value. We have intrinsic value to this company and creating the society that we want to live in’ Keep it up and never back down, because this is what built America. Unions built America, said Assembly Member Emily Gallagher.
Community supporters can help by sending a letter to Kickstarter leadership and asking them to avoid a strike by meeting the workers’ demands.
ABOUT KICKSTARTER UNITED
On February 18th, 2020, Kickstarter employees voted to form a union and became the first major tech company in the United States to do so. We took this step in order to invest deeply in our collective future at the company we love, to create a workplace that is safer and more equitable for all, and to support organizing efforts across the tech industry and the many creative communities our work touches. We are proud to call ourselves members of OPEIU Local 153. Learn more on our website: KickstarterUnited.org.
ABOUT OPEIU LOCAL 153
OPEIU is a union of more than 103,000 employees in technology, credit unions, hospitals, insurance agencies, colleges and universities, hotels, administrative offices, and more. As the founder of the Nonprofit Employees United initiative, OPEIU supports thousands of nonprofit workers across the country in forming unions and negotiating strong contracts. OPEIU is committed to advancing economic justice for all working people.