Kickstarter is in hot water after firing three employees who were all involved in creating the company's union.
Staff at the crowdfunding platform went public with plans to start a union in March. One of the first workers says she was subsequently told she would be put on a performance improvement plan in July.
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Clarissa Redwine told the Huffington Post the proposed plan never eventuated, and she was instead fired eight weeks later.
Kickstarter claimed she was let go due to ongoing performance issues, but Redwine says she exceeded her performance metrics for the most recent quarter.
Another employee, Taylor Moore, was fired on Thursday.
"The union-busting campaign that Kickstarter management is engaging in is illegal and wrong," Moore told The Verge, "and is a dramatic abandonment of the values of an organisation that I have loved and served with my whole heart."
Moore said on Twitter another prominent union organiser was let go, although he did not give their name.
The crowdfunding platform denies the workers were let go because of their union efforts, telling the BBC Moore and Redwine were let go due to performance issues, and the third unnamed employee's role was no longer necessary.
"We knew how these terminations could be perceived. But it would be unfair to not hold these people to the same standards as the rest of our staff simply because they are union organisers."
Kickstarter hasn't heard the end of the organisers though - Redwine has filed an unfair labour charge with the National Labour Relations Board on Mondy (local time), claiming the severance agreement she was offered contained an illegally phrased nondisparagement clause.
Kickstarter claims it offered to change the clause but did not receive a response from Redwine. Redwine claims even with the change it would make accurately describing conditions at the company effectively impossible.
Newshub.
