Irish tech union membership rises five-fold amid job cuts

Membership of Ireland’s Digital and Techworker Alliance (DATA) has grown five-fold since its founding in 2023, reaching more than 1,350, organiser John Bohan said. The increase comes as technology companies cut jobs while directing investment towards artificial intelligence.

Bohan said membership remained near 270 during the union’s first year and a half before rising over the following year and a half. Redundancies and other company actions tend to prompt more workers to join, he said.

Among the employers reducing staff, Meta has cut well over 1,000 Irish roles since the pandemic, roughly halving its workforce there. Its subcontractor Covalen announced cuts affecting more than 700 people in 2026. TikTok also announced plans to eliminate around 300 Irish jobs, mainly in trust and safety, moving work abroad, to contractors or to automated AI systems.

Despite those cuts, employment across technology and related sectors exceeded 177,000 in the second quarter of 2026, compared with around 144,000 in the corresponding quarter of 2021, according to Ireland’s Central Statistics Office. AI companies including Anthropic and OpenAI are also establishing Irish bases and recruiting staff.

DATA wants employers to be legally required to recognise unions for collective bargaining. It is also seeking a ban on clauses that stop redundant workers moving between Big Tech subcontractors. The union organised a Workers’ AI Counter Summit in Dublin to give workers a greater voice in discussions about workplace technology.

Ireland’s department for enterprise said the government had published a plan to strengthen collective bargaining and industrial relations through 2030. It said existing law requires employers to consult and give notification during collective redundancies, and workers can bring complaints to the Workplace Relations Commission.