Even after the 2000 dot‑com crash, the tech sector remained a coveted career path for those who saw technology as the future. The digital age—characterized by global connectivity and computers—has become a dominant force in the labor market, offering high‑paying roles for engineers, designers, and many other professionals. MIT PhD student JS Tan (class of ’22) graduated from Brown and RISD in 2015 and entered the tech industry. Tan recalls, “A lot of us believed that technology, especially internet‑related tech, could bring about a more progressive world.”
Google once reinforced this ethos with the slogan “don’t be evil,” but the start of the Trump administration prompted some employees to question whether their employers truly supported democratic values. Tan argues that workers initially succeeded in publicly opposing their companies, but now face an anti‑worker backlash. Together with former colleague Clarissa Redwine, he authored Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry (Haymarket Books, 2026), documenting a decade of tech‑worker organizing.
In 2017 Tan worked at Microsoft and Redwine at Kickstarter when President Trump issued an executive order banning entry for nationals of seven predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days and indefinitely suspending Syrian refugees. “The tech sector really pushed back against this,” Tan says. OpenAI co‑founder Sam Altman joined airport protests and, the day before, wrote a blog urging the industry to take a public stand against the administration’s immigration policies. Altman’s Jan. 28, 2017 post read, in part, “Tech companies go to extraordinary lengths to recruit and retain talent; those employees have a lot of leverage. If employees push companies to do something, I believe they’ll have to. At a minimum, companies should take a public stance. But talking is only somewhat effective, and employees should push their companies to figure out what actions they can take.”
Inspired by Altman, workers staged walkouts and protested contracts with the U.S. military, immigration enforcement agencies, and workplace policies they deemed sexist. In 2018, after a Google employee walkout, nearly 4,000 staff signed an open letter demanding the company drop Project Maven, a Pentagon AI program that analyzed drone footage. Google subsequently chose not to renew the contract. Fast forward eight years, more than 600 employees again signed a letter urging the CEO to reject classified Pentagon AI work, citing concerns about lethal autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. Tan notes Google’s response this time was essentially, “Too bad, we’re committed to working with the Pentagon,” indicating a political shift and a retreat from employee pressure.
Tan’s book identifies three factors that eroded worker leverage. First, the 2022 interest‑rate hikes wiped out hundreds of billions in tech market value, prompting cost‑cuts that targeted the sector’s expensive salaries. Second, the rise of generative AI coding tools has deskilled many roles, heightening job‑security anxieties. Third, the absence of unions or cross‑company coordination left workers without collective bargaining power.
Tan enrolled at MIT Media Lab in 2020, now pursuing a doctorate in Urban Studies and Planning focused on the tech sector’s political economy. Redwine was a key organizer in Kickstarter’s union drive and was fired in 2019—a move she claims was retaliation, which the company denies. Their motivation for writing the book stems from the observation that tech‑worker organizing bandwidth has hit a new low. “Tech workers want a say in how their technologies are designed and want proper guardrails,” Tan says. They began drafting the manuscript in 2024, reliving the movement’s highs and lows. Tan describes the writing process as “exhilarating” and underscores his belief in the power of research and writing. A launch event co‑hosted by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning is scheduled for Oct. 26.
Review: The book offers a rare insider’s chronicle of the tech‑worker movement, exposing the tension between proclaimed corporate values and profit‑driven decisions, and illustrating how capital pressures and AI‑driven workflow changes have weakened collective power. It is an essential resource for anyone studying the future of tech governance and labor relations.