The Association That Tried to Become a Kitchen

February 14, 2025

Computer Weekly dated the Data Labelers Association's launch weather: Kenyan AI workers forming a body to fight for fair pay, mental health support, better conditions. 339 members in the first week. Employed, the piece said, to train and maintain the systems of major technology companies; formed to challenge systemic injustices. Agenda: mental health support, legal help on pay disputes, professional development, advocacy, collective bargaining with the data companies that sit between workers and the labs. Already in touch with the African Content Moderators Union, Turkopticon, the Distributed AI Research Institute, Kenyan politicians, the Ministry of ICT.

AFP, by October 2025, put the membership near 800. Ephantus Kanyugi, in the rooms that walk a founder, is a finance graduate who annotated at CloudFactory in 2018 — New York magazine put a CloudFactory rate at $1.20 an hour in one worker's mouth — then Remotasks, where initial earnings declined as tasks got harder and cheaper. Ten experienced trainers. A code of conduct because a union, in his telling, was difficult to stand up. Members keeping membership secret for fear of platforms.

I printed the Computer Weekly page. I put it on the sideboard. Frieda asked if it was a bill. I said it was an association. She said association is a church word. I said it is a kitchen word. She said then why is it in Kenya. I said that is the chapter.

The Email That Was a Door

Remotasks, in the walks that date an exit, shut Kenyan operations in early 2024 — March in some rooms — a last-minute email, hours in some mouths. Workers stranded. Unpaid balances in some advocacy weather I will not upgrade to a docket I have not held. I will say a platform can leave a country the way a vendor leaves a slide: overnight, with a sentence about operational changes. Overnight is a costume. Costumes are this book's beat.

Nia asked if her account still existed. I said I would not log in for her. She said then the book is lousy. I said lousy is honest. She boxed nothing that week. Nothing is a rate I can stand.

What a Code Is, If You Have Only Met a Contract

A code of conduct is a request. A contract is a Tuesday. The DLA wants both. CloudFactory, in Kanyugi's later weather, was already willing to talk longer contracts, better pay, travel expenses. I will not make a willingness a statute. I will say a kitchen that writes a code is Degree 3 learning manners. Manners are not innocence. Manners are how you stay in a ministry meeting.

Amos wrote code ≠ CBA. He said that is the only tattoo for this file. I stole it.

Kanyugi's Code, Left as a Code

I will not invent a CBA I have not seen signed. I will say a code asks for sick leave, maternity leave, fair pay, and that asking is how a kitchen starts. Turkopticon and DAIR are cousins in the Computer Weekly walk. Cousins do not share a docket number. Pax wanted them to. Hats are photographs. Photographs crop.

Sybil keeps a school calendar that still has a red pen. I met her because Dina needed a form. She asked if I was a parent. I said I was a ride. She asked if "the computers" were taking jobs. I said a version is taking a box and a version is still an hour. She said that is not a calendar. I said that is a dashboard. She said dashboards should hire her. She has a red pen.

March, an Email, a Country

I am dating the exit as early 2024, March in some rooms, because a last-minute email should have a season. Seasons sold a window in another book. This book's season left a queue. Jules asked, at a hall that still has folding chairs, whether the email was "a firing." I said an email can be a door. He said doors should have notice. I said notice is Chapter 5's 1,108. He said then the book has two doors. I said the book has labels.

339, Then 800

Week one: 339. October AFP: about 800. Founders paying from their own pockets in Kanyugi's weather. Membership kept secret. Fear of platforms. I am stacking the counts so a reader who heard "they unionized" can see an association that is not yet a CBA. CBAs are tattoos Amos already wrote.

Quade boards a community-radio hour that has a cough button. I sat in a hallway because he asked if "the Kenya thing" was a fine. I said it was an association. He said associations do not make good radio. I said that is why I write. He coughed into a button. Buttons that stop sound are honest.

CloudFactory as a Cousin, Not a Defendant

$1.20 in one mouth. Longer contracts, travel expenses, in a later willingness. I will not make a willingness a 10-Q. I will say a cousin can talk while a platform leaves. Talking is manners. Leaving is an email.

The Data Workers' Inquiry walk dates the public launch: February 13, 2025, theme Empowering the People Powering AI. Computer Weekly is the fourteenth. I am keeping both dates so a reader who heard "they unionized in February" can see a launch and a magazine. Launches are halls. Magazines are lists.

End of 2023, in the WageIndicator walk of Kanyugi: he and nine other data workers formed a collective. They wanted a trade union. A union, in his telling, was difficult to stand up in Kenya. Early 2025: an association. He said he only realized the situation was unlawful when he met researcher Berhan Taye from Stanford, AI Harms, who wanted the working conditions. Conclusion, in his mouth: a violation of human rights. I will not upgrade a conclusion to a holding. I will say a researcher can hand a person a word, and that a word can become a code, and that a code is still not a CBA.

DAIR, Turkopticon, and AI Now, in the Inquiry walk, supported the launch with money and logistics. Locally they were already in a fight over a Business Amendment Bill they said threatened worker exploitation by BPOs and platform owners, preparing for public hearings in the Senate and Parliament. I have not held the bill. I will say a hearing is a room, and that a room is how an association talks to a ministry before a statute exists.

Kinyua's vacuum belongs here as well as in Chapter 1. Products not available in Kenya. Recognition not available. Peanuts available. Asia's loophole belongs here: they know the law is not there. A member dismissed for speaking. Screenshots of twenty unpaid hours. Collective bargaining, in the weekly's agenda, with the middle companies — the data firms that sit between the worker and the lab. Middle is a costume. Costumes are Chapter 5's parent-and-stranger.

CloudFactory, in Kanyugi's later weather, already willing to talk longer contracts, better pay, travel. Willingness is manners. Remotasks' early-2024 exit is an email. Emails do not talk. I will not make a willingness a 10-Q.

Jules stacked a chair in a hall that still has folding chairs. I left the hall. Folding chairs are honest. Dashboards do not fold. Amos wrote Feb 13 ≠ Feb 14 and boxed it. He said two dates are two doors. I stole the box.

Dzieza's Joe, after the boot camps closed, rented office space in Nairobi and tried to keep the skill from leaving: blueprints, fruit with insects, the usual cars and e-commerce. One full-time employee, down from two. Clients, in his mouth, do not care whether the flow is consistent. So long as the datasets are completed, that is the end. I am putting the rented office next to DLA's folding chairs so an association and a small vendor can share a city without sharing a docket. Dockets are Chapter 2. This chapter is a kitchen that tried to become a company after a platform left.

Victor, when TIME's ChatGPT piece landed in a WhatsApp: people angry that the companies were profitable and paying poorly. He did not know Remotasks was Scale until Dzieza told him. Instructions on one task nearly identical to OpenAI's; he had likely been training ChatGPT for about $3 an hour. Someone posted that they would be remembered. Someone else: treated worse than foot soldiers; remembered nowhere. I am keeping nowhere. Nowhere is a cousin of Doy's ticket.

March 8, 2024, in the Kenyan Wall Street walk of an email: we are discontinuing operations in your current location effective March 8, 2024. March 9, in a Data Workers' Inquiry walk: accounts shut. AirTM, in that advocacy weather, had already frozen withdrawals after an investigation of Remotasks funds, then returned money to Remotasks, in those mouths. I will not upgrade AirTM to a caption I have not held. I will say an email can be a door, and that a door can close on a balance I have not seen, and that unpaid-balance weather stays weather until a docket names it.

Kinyua's peanuts sit next to Joe's $10-for-eight-hours and Victor's $3. Peanuts are a president's noun. Hours are lists. Lists are how an association starts.

Jules's chairs are still stacked. I did not unstack them. Amos wrote Mar 8 email / location and refused to invent a balance. I refused too.

TechCrunch dated a parliament petition July 14, 2023. Citizen Digital named the four: Richard Mwaura Mathenge, Mophat Ochieng Okinyi, Alex Mwaura Kairu, Bill Kelvin Mulinya, on behalf of a moderation team. They asked the National Assembly Public Petitions Committee to probe the nature and conditions of work and the operations of Sama and other companies operating in Kenya to whom Meta, TikTok, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI outsource content moderation and AI work. They asked parliament to interrogate the Ministry of Labour's role in protecting Kenyan youth working for those companies. They asked that licences of companies that contribute to exploitation be withdrawn. They asked for laws regulating the outsourcing of harmful and dangerous technology work. They asked to amend the Employment Act to protect workers engaged through outsourcing. They asked to amend the Occupational Health Act to include exposure to harmful content as an occupational hazard. I am lining the prayers so a code of conduct cannot eat a statute ask, and so a statute ask cannot eat a CBA that does not exist.

Sama, to TechCrunch: open to working with the Kenyan government to ensure baseline protections at all companies; welcomes third-party audits; employees have multiple channels to raise concerns; multiple external and internal evaluations and audits to ensure fair wages and a dignified environment. OpenAI, to ITWeb Africa: acknowledged a challenging work setting during ChatGPT safety training. Foxglove backed the parliament approach, in that walk, along with a nascent content-moderators union the petitioners were also involved with. I am leaving every mouth. A petition to a committee is not KECA 1262. A committee is a hall. A judgment is a door. Two Kenyan kitchens. Different years.

DLA's February 2025 launch is later. The July 2023 petition is earlier. I am dating both so a reader who heard "they organized" can see a parliament paper and an association and a code. Papers, associations, codes. Not one coin.

Sybil's red pen is still a calendar. I did not ask her to mark July 14. Calendars that stay red are honest. Dashboards that stay green are not.

May 1, 2023, Labour Day, Mövenpick Hotel, Nairobi. TIME, Foxglove, Africa Solutions: more than 150 content moderators from Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, ChatGPT. They resolved to register the first African Content Moderators Union — Content Moderators Union in some mouths, ACMU in others. Confetti. Music. Motaung on stage, traveled from South Africa, four years after the Alliance. His sentence, in the rooms that reprint it: he never thought, when he started the Alliance in 2019, they would be here with moderators from every major social media giant; there have never been more of us; our cause is right; we shall prevail; proud of today's decision to register. Martha Dark: it takes a village to solve a problem, but today the Kenyan moderators formed an army; from TikTok to Facebook, same issues; toxic content, no mental health care, precarious work; systemic failures; hope their example inspires colleagues. Foxglove: TIME's Motaung reporting kicked off a wave that culminated in two judgments against Meta and planted seeds for the summit. I will not upgrade two judgments to a 2024 door I have already dated. I will say a press release can count, and that a count is weather, and that May 1 is a hall I had not yet given this chapter.

DLA is February 13, 2025. The parliament petition is July 14, 2023. The summit is May 1, 2023. Three halls. I am dating them so a reader who heard "they unionized" can see a vote to register, a paper to a committee, and an association with a code. A vote to register is not a registration. Nonprofit Quarterly, later: still unregistered; Oyange, in that walk, said the government thinks they are fighting against good, views the companies as investors creating youth jobs; they submitted a promoter certificate, drafted constitutions and laws, built a foundation; no ministry response. I am putting the delay next to Kanyugi's "union was difficult" so a difficulty can have a date and a name. I will not invent a refusal letter. I will say a silence from a ministry is a mouth I can print as a silence.

Computer Weekly already sat DLA next to the African Content Moderators Union as a cousin in touch. I am now giving the cousin a Labour Day. Cousins do not share a docket. Pax wanted them to. Hats crop.

Jules's folding chairs are not the Mövenpick. I will not pretend they are. Folding chairs are a hall that has not rented confetti. Confetti is a photograph. Photographs crop. I left the hall I actually sat in. I did not sit in the Mövenpick. I read TIME. Reading is a kitchen. Pretending I was there is a kit. Amos banned kits.

I am walking May 1 slowly because I was not there and a museum that pretends it was there is a keynote. TIME had a video: packed room, cheers, confetti, music. Foxglove had a hotel name. Motaung had a stage and a four-year sentence. Dark had an army. Oyange, later, had a promoter certificate and a silence. Kanyugi, later still, had a code because a union was difficult. Kinyua had peanuts and a vacuum that is not sold in Kenya. Asia had a loophole. The parliament four had prayers. I am seating them at one table I did not set. The table is this chapter. The food is dates.

May 1, 2023. July 14, 2023. February 13, 2025. February 14, 2025. 339 in a week. 800 by October. Ten trainers. Membership secret. Fear of platforms. Founders paying from pockets. Ministry of ICT hackathon. Ministry of Labour on board, in a later willingness. CloudFactory willing to talk. Remotasks already gone. I will not make a willingness a 10-Q. I will not make a silence a refusal letter I have not held. I will say an association is Degree 3 learning manners in public, and that manners are not innocence, and that a hall with confetti and a hall with folding chairs can share a city and not share a budget.

Jules stacked a chair. I did not tell him about confetti. Confetti is a photograph. Photographs crop. Folding chairs do not.

I printed the four halls on one page and asked Boone for a staple I had already used in another chapter. He charged anyway. May 1, Mövenpick, confetti I did not see. July 14, four names, a committee, an occupational-hazard prayer. February 13, Empowering the People Powering AI. February 14, Computer Weekly, 339. I left the staple in so a reader who wants "they unionized" has to tear paper. Tearing is honest. Podcasts crop.

Kanyugi's pocket, Kinyua's peanuts, Asia's loophole, Oyange's certificate, Dark's army, Motaung's four-year sentence: I am seating them again because Chapter 3 dies if it becomes a vibe. Vibes are hats. Halls are dates. I walked out with the packet. The fare box made a sound. Sounds are still buses. Associations are still not CBAs.

Three halls, one staple, a fare-box sound: I am leaving Chapter 3 as a packet a clerk can hold. 339. 800. May 1. July 14. February 13. A code. A silence. An email that left a country. I will not make the packet a union. I will make it a kitchen that asked. Asking is manners. Manners are not a CBA.