226 employees of Google have formed a worker’s union amid mounting discontent against Google’s parent company Alphabet’s policies, following an incident where a person of colour employee was sacked after criticising hiring policies.
In an article in the New York Times, Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw announced the formation of a union open to all employees and contractors at Alphabet.
“This is historic—the first union at a major tech company by and for all tech workers,” said Dylan Baker, Software Engineer. “We will elect representatives, we will make decisions democratically, we will pay dues and we will hire skilled organizers to ensure all workers at Google know they can work with us if they actually want to see their company reflect their values,” he added.
In a press release, the Alphabet Workers Union explained their rationale.
“Google began as a small tech company with a “Don’t Be Evil” mantra, but has quickly become one of the most influential companies in the world. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, now has more than 120,000 workers. It’s responsible for vast swaths of the internet, controlling tools used by billions of people across the world, with subsidiaries as varied as Waymo, Verily, Fitbit, and Wing,” the release said.
omg I’m SO EXCITED to finally announce this. We organized a union at Google — @AlphabetWorkers Union is here!✊🏾🥖📈(1/n) pic.twitter.com/0l5LRlB8KL
— Auni A (@trombauni) January 4, 2021
“Yet half of Google workers at Alphabet companies are hired as TVCs—temps, vendors, or contractors—without the benefits afforded to full-time employees. Executives have been awarded tens of millions of dollars in exit packages after documented sexual harassment against fellow Googlers. And the company has taken on unethical government contracts, like drone targeting for the military, yet kept the nature of that technology secret even to the Googlers working on those projects. It has removed its past motto from its mission statement.”
“Most recently, the company fired Dr. Timnit Gebru, a leading artificial intelligence researcher, for no reason whatsoever. The firing has caused outrage from thousands of us, including Black and Brown workers who are heartbroken by the company’s actions and unsure of their future at Google.”
Over the years, Google employees have clashed with management over a slew of issues: From plans to build a censored search engine for China to the firing of a Google employee who alleged an “ideological echo chamber at the company” to the forced arbitration policy (terminated in 2019 for cases of sexual harassment or assault) that saw employees forced to settle their disputes with the company privately.
Timnit Gebru, the employee whose termination prompted over a thousand Google employees to protest last week, welcomed the news on Twitter.
The move comes a year after a report stating that Google had recruited a company known for discouraging union activity. The firm, IRI Consultants, was brought in after a much-publicised employee walkout saw thousands participate across the globe in 2018.
In a response to the act of unionising, Google’s director of people operations, Kara Silverstein, issued a statement saying the company had “always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce” and that employees have protected labor rights “that we support. But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees.”
