Almost two years after Grindr laid off 82 out of 178 employees 46 percent of the staff the union of workers for the company announced that it is still fighting for its laid-off members to regain their jobs. The union even started a fundraising campaign to help support the employees who are still out of work.Sign up for the Out Newsletter to keep up with what's new in LGBTQ+ culture and entertainment delivered three times a week straight (well) to your inbox!The union, named Grindr United, updated members of its continued fight in a statement shared toward the end of June, which was stylized as a conversation between two Grindr users in an attempt to get more people to pay attention to the cause.This mockup of back and forth Grindr DMs deliver new details about the case. Namely, that "Grindr workers tried to unionize so we could have a seat at the table and fight for an app that serves our community. Management forced us out, and now we are 18 months into a legal process to get our jobs back."This stylized statement ends with the union writing, "If you can, we're fundraising for those of us still without work." (@) Grindr, a social network and app often used for hooking up and dating among queer people, has faced a slew of criticisms after George Arison, a gay businessman, took over as CEO in September 2022. Since then, the company's leader has been the subject of controversy after past X posts (formerly tweets) came to the surface and reportedly showed him potentially agreeing with some of Trump's policies, as well as voicing support for an anti-LGBTQ+ Virginia governor were unearthed.In October 2022 right as the company was preparing to go public on the stock market X posts (tweets) from Arison's past about conservative politicians were unearthed. In 2020, he reportedly shared posts identifying himself as a conservative, and even "agrees with some of Trump's policies." Reports also include Arison showing support for a conservative politician who was targeting rights for LGBTQ+ kids.After those X posts were made public, Grindr shared a statement to TIME that read, "George is an out gay man, proudly married to his husband and the father of two children. George is passionate about fighting for the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ people around the world."Arison navigated the negative press in a way that left him relatively unscathed, but also implemented a rigorous use of AI and boasted about running a "super lean company" with a "high revenue per head" on a podcast called 20VC (included below). @20vc_tok This company earns $2M per employee! #20VC with Grindr CEO George Arison. Link in bio. #HarryStebbings #Business #businessadvice #businesstips #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #founder #ceo #businessstories #Grindr #startup Arison has openly discussed a push toward AI, reasoning that he expects that start-ups can get off the ground with "much less" employees than previously needed thanks to the help of "synthetic employees."Out reached out to Grindr United and to the actual company, Grindr, for comment. Neither party has responded as of this writing.