Will either candidate keep pushing forward for labor? The answer is not so clear. Monied tech interests are lining up on both sides to advocate for looser regulation. While pro-Trump venture capitalists Andreessen and Ben Horowitz cited euphemistic “bad government policies” as the number one threat to the tech industry, the Silicon Valley powers that be on Harris’s side haven’t exactly come out swinging for labor. In fact, Hoffman said that the FTC’s Khan is “waging war on American business” and urged Harris to fire her.
It’s not evident yet if Harris shares the views of her billionaire supporters, but she’s certainly chasing their money. A recent Harris campaign fundraiser in San Francisco bagged $13 million from a guest list replete with tech executives. And the vice president is reportedly courting tech bosses more directly, sending aides to meet with crypto leaders and venture capital firms. Her ties to the industry are long-standing and often personal; she’s known to be close with both former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Laurene Powell Jobs, and her brother-in-law is Uber’s chief legal officer.
While Harris’s team has been having conversations and exploring options, it has not yet announced any economic agenda or approach to regulation, innovation, or labor. It’s savvy to get the money first without making public promises. But Harris should be trying to court our votes, too—not just our bosses’ financial support. In recent memory, workers in the tech industry have demonstrated progressive energy. While campaigning in 2020, Bernie Sanders proudly voiced solidarity with workers against their billionaire bosses. And tech workers turned out for him, donating more to Bernie than to any other presidential candidate during the primaries—close to twice as much as to Elizabeth Warren, the second-favorite candidate for the group. Harris could leverage that kind of power in November if she truly commits to the cause.
Now is the moment for Harris to step up and make a statement in support of workers, promising to continue, if not expand upon, the Biden-Harris approach to Big Tech. Some may remember that when she ran for president in 2020, Senator Harris sided with Uber drivers and against her brother-in-law’s interests during a fight about gig workers’ rights in California. Unions like ours—as well as any American who believes that fair labor practices are essential to a functioning democracy—can continue to apply pressure on Harris and her team to take a strong stand for worker rights and protections. Indeed, the United Auto Workers (UAW) filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk after those careless comments at the Spaces event, whereas President Biden walked a picket line with striking auto workers. Voices like theirs and ours—the voices of the hundreds of thousands of workers we represent—will continue to be raised. If we aren’t heard, we will get louder.
The stakes in November are high, and the only truly democratic future is one with fair wages, worker protections, and shared abundance. Tech elites stand in united opposition to such a future and are actively developing the AI tools to undermine it. Tech workers will continue to expand our collective power to fight those elites. The only open question is whether the next administration will be on our side or theirs.
Stephen McMurtry is a Google Software Engineer and Communications Chair of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA