Circuit Breakers is a gathering for all workers, organizers, and activists in the tech industry to come together and learn, build community, strategize, and recognize our collective power.
New York City | October 18-19, 2025
We consider all workers in the tech sector—from software engineers, to salespeople, to ride-share drivers—as tech workers. This conference is organized by volunteers from across the tech labor movement.
Values
The rank and file workers who organized this gathering aim to create a space where all workers across the tech industry—from office workers, to warehouse workers; from full time workers to contractors—can stand united in these values.
Worker-Led (click to expand)
Workers know how to win. When we put our heads together, no one has a better understanding of how our companies function, including our bosses. We’re the ones who drive these machines, we’re the ones who write the code, and we’re the ones who know every inch of the shop floor. If we want to build leverage that brings management to the bargaining table, our strategy must draw from the wisdom of the rank and file, from us, the workers. This movement must be worker-led to meet the challenges ahead.Courageous (click to expand)
If we want to use our labor power to raise up our communities, workers must be brave. We must reach out to one another to have important and difficult conversations that will move us to action. We must practice working together to challenge the status quo and build resilience that can foster bravery. Workers must realise we have the collective power to change the conditions that shape our lives and win demands that will free us. No one is coming to save us but ourselves.Radical Care (click to expand)
Radical care is necessary for building solidarity that can overcome the arbitrary divisions that undermine our collective power. To forge a strong global movement that reaches across roles, sectors, and borders, we must create transformative spaces of belonging and distributed power. This is how we build a community that is inclusive, compassionate, and places our humanity above the pressures of capital.Program
Circuit Breakers centers rank and file organizing.
The conference will feature workers from across the tech labor movement sharing stories, giving skills trainings, and participating in important debates.
We have a great selection of sessions in our full program! Keynote speakers will include representatives from No Azure for Apartheid, the Amazon Labor Union, Times Tech Guild (discussing their strike!), and the Content Moderators Union in Africa.
Here’s a sneak peek at some incredible sessions to expect over the conference weekend:
- Data Center Resistance Strategies: Building Coalitions In and Out of Tech
In this workshop, we'll hear from tech worker activists and community organizers who are involved in fights against data centers, tracking their negative environmental and social impacts. Participants will learn how to use data collection and coalition building to fight data center encroachment. - No Tech for' movements: remixing the greatest hits
No Tech for ICE or Genocide or Apartheid! Let's analyze the successful ingredients of these movements, surface key differences in this moment, and list new strategic inputs that can help future efforts to succeed. - Building Tech Workers' Strike Power
What can we learn from The New York Times Tech Guild's 2024 strike? How can we apply it to build tech workers' strike power at large? Join Times Tech Guild workers, who will discuss building solidarity to supermajority action, organizing a remote strike, and mapping the power of withheld labor. - Googlers for Job Security: Fighting for Power Against Corporate Giants
As layoffs sweep the industry, AWU members share how they built a multi-year campaign that won a groundbreaking concession: voluntary exit packages for 60,000+ Googlers. Speakers will dig into the nuts and bolts of sustaining a public escalating campaign that builds the union for long-term strength. - Lessons from Reopening a CBA Mid-Contract from Nava United
This is a story of how Nava United, a ~300-member OPEIU tech shop took collective action to get management to bargain over them to unilaterally implement billable hour minimums mid-contract, leading to our bargaining unit to overwhelmingly ratify our new agreement.
FAQ
Where and when is the conference? (click to expand)
Circuit Breakers 2025 will be hosted in New York City. It will be a 2-day event over the weekend of October 18-19. Doors will open at 9:30 am on the 18th, and the conference will end at approximately 6:00 pm on the 19th. The exact location will be provided to attendees upon registration, but expect it to be near Washington Square Park. For further questions, please reach out to conf (at) techworkerscoalition.orgCan I attend this conference remotely? (click to expand)
This conference will be in-person only, both for logistical reasons and to respect the privacy of our attendees and their organizing. We do anticipate holding future virtual events and panels drawing on the topics and speakers of the most attended and best-received workshops.Who is this conference for? (click to expand)
This is a conference for rank-and-file workers in tech who have direct experience organizing, who want to get more involved in organizing, or even have no experience as an organizer. This gathering is not for general observers like journalists or researchers. If you fall into one of these categories, you might be eligible if you have significant ties to tech organizing or the labor movement and consider yourself, broadly speaking, a participant or supporter. If you are unsure, we encourage you to reach out to confirm if this conference is for you.Who is a tech worker? (click to expand)
A tech worker is any worker who works in the tech industry or for a tech company. This includes roles from software engineers to product managers, IT, sales, ride-share drivers, warehouse workers, delivery drivers, to any person who works for a tech company. Workers from all of these roles and more are encouraged to attend Circuit Breakers.Covid Policy (click to expand)
We care about the safety and health of our fellow workers. All attendees will be required to rapid test for Covid within 24 hours of the conference. At registration we will ask to see documentation of your negative test results and all attendees will be expected to mask unless eating or speaking on stage.How do I get in touch? (click to expand)
You can contact the conference organizers at conf (at) techworkerscoalition.orgCircuit Breakers is organized by:
