Googleworkers’ union a tech industry rarity
AgroupofGoogleengineersand otherworkersannouncedMonday they have formed a union, creating a rare foothold for the labor movement in the tech industry.
About 225 employees atGoogle and its parent company Alphabet are the first dues-payingmembers of the Alphabet Workers Union. Theyrepresent a fraction ofAlphabet’s workforce, far short of the threshold needed to get formal recognition as a collective bargaining group in the U.S.
But the new union, which will be affiliated with the larger CommunicationWorkers of America, says it will serve as a “structure that ensures Googleworkers can actively push for real changes at the company.” Its members say they want more of a voice not just on wages, benefits and protections against discrimination and harassment but also broader ethical questions about howGoogle pursues its business ventures.
Google said Monday that it’s tried to create a supportive and rewardingworkplacebutsuggested it won’t be negotiating directly with the union.
“Of course our employees have protected labor rights that we support,” said a statement from Kara Silverstein, the company’s director of people operations. “But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees.”
Unionization campaigns haven’t historically been able to gain much traction among elite tech workers, who earn big salaries and other perks like free food and shuttle rides to work. But workplace activismatGoogleandother
big tech firms has grownin recent years as employers call for better handling ofworkplace sexual harassment and discrimination, opposition to Trump administration policies and avoiding harmful uses of the products they’re helping to build and sell.
GooglesoftwareengineerChewy Shaw, who has been elected to the new union’s executive council, said he and others decided to form the group after seeing colleagues pushed out of the company for their activism.
“We want to have a counterforce to protectworkerswho are speaking up,” Shaw said.
The union’s first members include engineers, aswell as sales associates, administrative assistants and the workers who test self-driving vehicles at Alphabet automotivedivisionWaymo. Many work at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters, while others are
at offices in Massachusetts, New York and Colorado.
“One of the reasons why it’s taken awhile forworkers to get to this point is because the leaders of these companies did a good job of convincingworkers theywere these benevolent folkswhowere going to provide for them, kind of a paternalistic model,” said Beth Allen, communications director at the CWA.
“That got them a long way,” Allen said, but workers have increasingly realized they need “tocometogetherandbuildpower for themselves and have a voice in what’s going on.”
The National Labor Relations Board typically recognizes petitions to form new unions when they get interest fromat least30% of employees in a given location or job classification in the U.S.; a majority of affectedworkersmust then vote to form one.