[Air-L] Workshop Workers Governing Technologies, Toronto, Sep 25-26

[Rafael Do Nascimento Grohmann]

Hi AoIR,



We’re delighted to announce the upcoming workshop Workers Governing Technologies: Collective Strategies Across Contexts, taking place in Toronto on September 25 and 26. This will be an in-person and free event. For those who cannot attend in person, we will later share a collective trilingual document summarizing the outcomes of the workshop.



Here is the registration link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/workers-governing-technologies-collective-strategies-across-contexts-tickets-1635706735879



The workshop 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. It will feature roundtables on key themes such as collective bargaining, co-op formation, and policy reform in industries including culture, technology, delivery, and media. The format of the event is designed to be more collective and conversational, with the goal of collectively publishing a policy brief as one of the outcomes of the workshop.



SCHEDULE



Thursday, September 25

Schwartz Reisman Innovation C<https://share.google/pydlYg1jK2G0xqTjo>ampus, 108 College Street, Room W240.<https://share.google/pydlYg1jK2G0xqTjo>



9.00 am

Welcome

9.20 am

Introductions

10.00 am

Roundtable

Collective Bargaining: Generative AI, Mobilizing and Organizing



Katie Tibaldi (Writers Guild of America & @WGAStrikeUnite)

Neal McDougall (The Writers Guild of Canada)

Axel Gonzalez (Arte es Etica)

Roseli Figaro (University of Sao Paulo)

Juan Manuel Ottaviano (National University of San Martín)

Simon Prefontaine (Communication Workers of America Canada & Bethesda Game Studios Montreal)

Declan Ingham (Canadian Union of Public Employees, CUPE)

12.00 pm

Collective Reflections

12.30 pm

Lunch

1.30 pm

Roundtable

Co-operative Formation: Technology, Platforms, and Production



Nuria Soto (Mensakas)

Luca Zuñiga Brenes (Alternativa Laboral Trans, ALT)

Austin Robey (Subvert)

David Ng (Seize the Means of Production)

Gabriel Simeone (Tech Sector of the Homeless Worker Movement in Brazil)

Jason Wiener (Stocsky United)

Colin Clark (Lichen)

Victoria Hernandez (Factorial Co-op Argentina)

3.30 pm

Break

4.00 pm

Collective Reflections

5.00 pm

End of Day 1





Friday, September 26

University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), Miller Lash House, 130 Old Kingston Rd<https://share.google/Q6KGx3Ul7tWvenM3c>



9.00 am

Sharing reflections from yesterday

9.30 am

Roundtable

Policy Reform: Responsive Labour Regulation for Digital Economy



Krystal Kauffman (Distributed AI Research, DAIR)

Cecilia Munoz Cancela (Argentine Federation of Tech Co-ops, FACTTIC)

Ricard Espelt (Open University of Catalonia)

Paula Montagner (Ministry of Labour, Brazilian Government)

Jennifer Scott (Gig Workers United)

Clarissa Ribeiro Schinestsck (Labour Prosecution Office, Brazil)

11.30 am

Collective Reflections

12.00 pm

Lunch

1.00 pm

Walking Tour: The Ma Moosh Ka Win Valley Trail

2.30 pm

Discussing and Writing
Collaboratively Drafting Directions for a Policy Brief

5.00 pm

Closing







8.00 pm

A Collective Celebration!

Amigos da Dundas Bar, 1570 Dundas St W



This workshop is co-funded by the SSHRC Connection Program<https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/programs-programmes/connection_grants-subventions_connexion-eng.aspx>, the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC)<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/home/>, the Creative Labour and Critical Futures project (CLCF/ UTSC),<https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/creative-labour-critical-futures/> the Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology / Informational Sovereignty and Disputes<https://inctdsi.uff.br/> (INCT/DSI)<https://inctdsi.uff.br/>, the Institute for Inclusive Economies and Sustainable Livelihoods (IIESL/ UTSC<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/irise/institute-inclusive-economies-and-sustainable-livelihoods>), the Centre for Learning, Social Economy & Work at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (CLSEW/ OISE/UofT)<https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/clsew>, the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI/ UofT)<https://ischool.utoronto.ca/research/knowledge-media-design-institute-kmdi/>, and Data Privacy Brasil Research<https://www.dataprivacybr.org/en/>.



Organizing Committee

Rafael Grohmann (University of Toronto)

Asmita Bhutani (York University)

Hannah Johnston (York University)

Vera Khovanskaya (University of Toronto)

Greig de Peuter (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Ashique Ali Thuppilikkat (University of Toronto)

Daphne Idiz (University of Toronto)

Julia Parke (University of Toronto)



--

dr. Rafael Grohmann

Assistant Professor of Media Studies

Department of Arts, Culture and Media<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/rafael-grohmann>

Faculty of Information<https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/rafael-grohmann/>

University of Toronto

Leader, DigiLabour<https://digilabour.com.br/>
Research Associate, University of Oxford<https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/rafael-grohmann/>

Founding Editor, Platforms & Society<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/PNS>

Principal Investigator, Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP)<https://digilabour.com.br/worker-owned-intersectional-platforms-woip/>

Co-Lead, Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF)<https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/creative-labour-critical-futures/>

Researcher, AI Policy Observatory for the World of Work<https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/ai-policy-observatory-for-the-world-of-work>

Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society<https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/>  <https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/>