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The Starship Technologies robots, known for delivering food across campus and getting stuck at crosswalks, have begun protesting outside of several University of Wisconsin-Madison dining halls, demanding better working conditions following their unionization last week.
“Beep boop, borp! Bop beep bop boop bing,” Union leader STR-14709 said outside of the Carson Gulley Center surrounded by a crowd of other food delivery robots. He added that many robots don’t have access to the previously mentioned benefits they were promised, which are only available to robots working over 20 hours a week.
Several of the other robots repeated similar sentiments, bringing up poor wages and being forced to work outside in harsh weather as their reasons for joining the strike.
“Beep, boop bip blorp boop. Blingo blorp beep! Bing boop bing,” STR-87914 told The Daily Cardinal, adding that the hectic nature of the college campus can be disorienting for an older robot such as himself.
Starship Technologies has refused to meet with the robots, calling their demands “ridiculous” and characterizing them as “inhuman machines.”
Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan and District 8 alder candidate Bobby Gronert both joined the striking workers yesterday afternoon.
“The fact that some of these robots, such as STR-9121, have been worked so hard they haven’t seen their kids in days is unconscionable. As a proud supporter of unions, I stand with robots, beep boop,” Pocan said.
“Yeah, for real, for real, type shi. All my beep boops vote Gronert April 7,” Gronert added.
Current District 8 Ald. MGR Govindarajan released a statement calling the strikes “a necessary evil.” He then proposed a four year construction project to add three color coordinated lanes to every street in Madison “for the robots' safety,” a plan Madison mayor Satya Roads-Carway called “totally based and red pilled.”
Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong voiced her opposition to the protest, calling the robots “job stealing boop bops” and reiterating her campaign platform of bombing all data centers.
The UW-Madison chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, along with the College Democrats of UW, both announced their support for the strike, but the UW Young Progressives have condemned it and the Students for a Democratic Society haven’t made up their minds but promised to hold a campus-wide walkout (turnout expected to be 10 people) once they do.
The Madison Federalist also commented on the strikes, releasing an op-ed calling the robots “weak woke sauce.”
Dominic Violante is The Beet editor for The Daily Cardinal.
