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In this Extraordinary General Episode, “The Committee” suffers it’s first resignation, the panel becomes an orifice of government, we organise the cabinet in to height order and present a special report from Union-Con.

Further Reading:

• One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up: A Memoir of Growing Up and Getting On Popbitch Newsletter
• Play Guess The Party
• Futurism: Meta Secretly Building a Photorealistic AI Clone of Mark Zuckerberg so No Employee Can Ever Escape His Watchful Eye
• Reuters: Meta employees launch protest against mouse-tracking tech at US offices
• CWU Conference 9-hour stream, day 1, day 2.

The Motion:

No motion this week :(

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This week everyone’s got somewhere else to be, but before they all rush off, there’s a housing special spectacular to record, where the committee put aside the usual trade union affairs to talk about the Renters Rights Act, with very special guest Dan G who’s doing bits with the London Renters Union.

Further Reading:

• Dubai: Playground of the Rich (I’m not linking it here but it’s all on Dailymotion, I’m sure you’ll find it)
• The Renters Rights Act: https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/renters_rights_act_changes_for_private_renters
• Blackpool — Acorn Members in Revoe: https://acornuk.good.do/saverevoerefurbnotrebuild/refurbnotrebuild/
• National Housing Demo: www.nationalhousingdemo.org

The Motion:

“This podcast believe that homeowners should be banned from holding trade union officer positions.”

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Buckle up for a marathon episode during which the committee covers Lord Mayors, the Together Alliance, Lammy, Robbie, Aunty, Galloway, and are joined by special guest Abby to talk dumping Labour.

Further Reading:

• BBC Archive: 

• Last Days on Grand Parade: youtube.com/watch?v=zgpK5YxqmDo

• Blessed are the Tea Ladies: youtube.com/watch?v=ZOg08w8jyZU

• The Office Christmas Party: youtube.com/watch?v=OxAzCyCY7Ms

• CWU Letter to Branches: Special Report — Labour Party Relationship: https://www.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/26LTB60.pdf

• Manchester South RMT Merch: https://manchester-south-rmt.teemill.com/

The Motion:

“Solidarity strikes should be legalised across companies in the same venture capital portfolio.”

Submit your motions to the committee to wwww@utaw.tech, or on Instagram @utaw_uk.

Version History:

• 6.0.1 - 2026-04-04 - opsec audio fix.
• 6.0.0 - 2026-04-03 - initial release.

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UTAW’s podcast, where Shireen, Eleaor & Edwin figure out what’s going on in tech, unions, politics and the internet.

The committee is back, after an unfortunate hiatus resulting from an attempted (FAILED) insurrection. Find out where we’ve been, why we’ve been there, why we’re sorry about it and how we’re going to make amends.

This episode: Affairs of the Olympiad, New comrades in Ireland, Protests at Google, a union ballot at Apple, Shireen goes Green, Wes’ Revenge, The Mandelson Files and a very happy birthday to Andrew.

Further reading:

• Fast ice skating where they go round: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRPxjCHs/
• Vice: Everything We Know About the Olympic Curling Cheating Scandal: https://www.vice.com/en/article/even-curling-isnt-immune-to-olympic-cheating-scandals/
• DATA-CWU - the union for tech workers in Ireland: https://www.datacwu.ie
• Including guidance on children who are questioning their gender in ‘Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE)’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/including-guidance-on-children-who-are-questioning-their-gender-in-kcsie/including-guidance-on-children-who-are-questioning-their-gender-in-keeping-children-safe-in-education-kcsie
• Times New Resistance: https://www.abbyhaddican.com/times-new-resistance
• Green Shireen: https://www.instagram.com/shireen_asaw

The Motion:

“WWWW believes that unions should engage in political struggle.”

Submit your motions to the committee to wwww@utaw.tech, or on Instagram @utaw_uk.

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London Met Research Assistant Alison MacKinnon joins the committee to talk about layoffs at the university. Grok gets cancelled, UTAW wins big, and we decide whether speaking Bri’ish is a protected characteristic.

• Times Higher Education - “Union brands London Met cuts an ‘act of institutional vandalism’”: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/union-brands-london-met-cuts-act-institutional-vandalism or “archived” link: https://archive.is/hikiu
• People Make Games - “Rockstar vs. Union: We Went to Court and Saw the Evidence”: https://youtu.be/dnuipPQDd_w?si=BqdEG2JF3SFMAjTq
• CWU.ie - Covalen: https://www.cwu.ie/2026/01/14/cwu-press-release-covalen/
• My Co-Worker Pretended to be British for 3 Years: https://www.reddit.com/r/coworkerstories/comments/1l3idhy/my_coworker_pretended_to_be_british_for_3_years/
• What you need to know about lying on your CV: https://bsquarelaw.co.uk/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-complexities-of-lying-on-your-cv/
• Geordie stroke victim now ‘speaks like Jamaican’: https://youtu.be/JF56cDpB0r0?si=L7w-agNGRJqIxS5E, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/jul/04/health.healthandwellbeing
• Follow UCU London Met and UCU London: https://x.com/ucu_londonmet, https://x.com/uculondon, https://uculondonregion.wordpress.com/, https://www.facebook.com/share/195yYeYbqb/?mibextid=wwXIfr,
• Follow Alison MacKinnon https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-mackinnon-317a63236?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Submit your motions to the committee to wwww@utaw.tech, or on Instagram @utaw_uk.

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The holiday spirit brings about a giving of thanks, a summary of slop, and a prophecy of trash. The ghosts of unions past, present and future, Shireen Asaw, Eleanor Payne and Edwin Dorley return for a Workers of the World Wide Web holiday special.

_This episode is brought to you by The People’s Prop Department patreon.com/protestprops and the UTAW Scarf _https://utaw.shop/products/scarf/

Further Reading:

• Slade in Flame (1975) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slade_in_Flame
• Expresso Bongo (1959) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOsPd2NmV0w
• Employment Rights Bill - Deadlock Broken https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/deadlock-broken-employment-rights-bill-passes
• Andrea Egan is Unison’s new GS https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/12/unison-isnt-new-labours-playground-anymore
• Resident Doctors Strike https://novaramedia.com/2025/12/19/doctor-strangled-by-police-officer-until-she-passed-out-at-hunger-strike-protest/
• TikTok signs deal to avoid US ban https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgexp1q8wn1o
• OpenAI Hires George Osborne https://www.ft.com/content/a6a8c7aa-9677-4208-a28e-a3ca51cb7aa3
• Microsoft Scales Back AI because no one is using it https://www.extremetech.com/computing/microsoft-scales-back-ai-goals-because-almost-nobody-is-using-copilot
• Let’s unpack our toxic fixation with ‘the TikToker who fell in love with her psychiatrist’ https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-08-15/tiktok-woman-loves-psychiatrist-why-were-obsessed
• Steam Deck https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck
• Stray https://store.steampowered.com/app/1332010/Stray/
• Headphones to sleep in https://www.soundcore.com/uk/products/sleep-a20-sleeping-earbuds
• Flow Neuroscience https://www.flowneuroscience.com/shop/
• Rats Playing Doom https://ratsplaydoom.com/

WWWW003, recorded 19 December 2025, in high definition digital stereo audio.

Workers of the World Wide Web is a production of United Tech & Allied Workers, the UK’s first (and best) trade union for tech workers.

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UTAW’s podcast, where Shireen, Eleaor & Edwin figure out what’s going on in tech, unions, politics and the internet.

Data centres in the shed, using AI to talk to the other side, a messy bill, some bad eggs, and a lil bit of self-crit. Shireen Asaw, Eleanor Payne and Edwin Dorley are your committee du jour.

The motion: “should managers join trade unions?” (submit your motions to this committee at wwww@utaw.tech)

Further Reading:

• Cory Doctorow’s For The Win & Enshitification.
• Data centres in the shed: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rpy7envr5o
• AI avatars of dead relatives: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/black-mirror-becomes-reality-new-app-lets-users-talk-to-ai-avatars-of-deceased-loved-ones-3283056/
• What’s really going on with AI and jobs?: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/what-the-hell-is-going-on-with-ai
• The Employment Rights Bill: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3737
• Sir Keir Starmer involved in road collision with cyclist: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54701336

Look the audio quality sucks, we’re going to get some microphones once we’ve done a couple of episodes to see if this has any staying power, relax.

Unused titles for this episode:

• “Parasocial relationship with my AI Grandma”
• “AI Early Man”
• “Streeting is Seeded”
• “If you can’t spot the centrist in the room, it’s you”

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UTAW’s podcast, where Shireen, Eleaor & Edwin figure out what’s going on in tech, unions, politics and the internet.

Welcome to Workers of the World Wide Web, a brand new podcast about tech workers and the tech they work on, from United Tech & Allied Workers, the UK’s first trade union for tech.

On the agenda this week, Shireen Asaw, Eleanor Payne, Vanessa Heron-Hua and Edwin Dorley establish some ground rules, talk about Rockstar committing Grand Theft Union-Busting and catch up on the latest AI cons.

The motion this week: “should trade unions disaffiliate from labour?”

Submit your motions to be voted on by this committee in their next meeting, to wwww@utaw.tech.

• IWGB: Staff at Rockstar fired en masse
• IWGB Game workers
• Futurism: Founder Admits His “AI Transcription” Startup Was Just Him Joining People’s Meetings and Taking Notes by Hand
• The LinkedIn post
• Microsoft: Measuring the Applicability of Generative AI to Occupations
• Blood in the Machine: AI Killed My Job: Translators
• UTAW.tech/join

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