US-based employees at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind Wikipedia, are joining a union drive that began with UK staff in June. Management has declined to voluntarily recognise the union, prompting US workers to say they will instead file for a formal election with the National Labor Relations Board, escalating a dispute over how the foundation is responding to organising efforts.

The Communications Workers of America, which is affiliated with the group Wiki Workers United, accused the foundation of using "classic union-busting rhetoric" drafted by expensive anti-union law firms after rejecting the workers' recognition request. The foundation has responded publicly that it favours a secret ballot NLRB election as the "appropriate path forward". The union push comes amid wider friction between the foundation and Wikipedia's volunteer editors, some of whom threatened to strike in May after the foundation disbanded an engineering team that worked closely with them, a move the foundation denies was linked to unionisation.