Hundreds of Google workers unionize

Alphabet Workers Union was organized in secret for months.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — More than 225 Google engineers and other workers have formed a union, the group revealed Monday, capping years of growing activism at one of the world’s largest companies.

The union’s creation is highly unusual for the tech industry, which has long resisted efforts to organize its largely white- collar workforce. It follows increasing demands by employees at Google for policy overhauls on pay, harassment and ethics, and is likely to escalate tensions with top leadership.

The new union, called the Alphabet Workers Union after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was organized in secret for the better part of a year and elected its leadership last month. The group is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, which represents workers in telecommunications and media in the United States and Canada.

But unlike a traditional union, which demands that an employer come to the bargaining table to agree on a contract, the Alphabet Workers Union is a so- called minority union that represents a fraction of the company’s more than 260,000 full- time employees and contractors.

Chewy Shaw, an engineer at Google in the San Francisco Bay Area and the vice chair of the union’s leadership council, said the union was a necessary tool to sustain pressure on management so that workers could force changes on workplace issues.

“Our goals go beyond the workplace questions of‘ Are

people getting paid enough?’ Our issues are going much broader ,” he said .“It is a time where a union is an answer to these problems.”

In response, Kara Silverstein, Google’s director of people operations, said: “We’ve always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce. Of course, our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees.”

Only a few small union drives have succeeded in tech. Workers at the crowdfunding site Kickstarter and at the app development platform Glitch won union campaigns last year, and a small group of contractors at a Google office in Pittsburgh unionized in 2019.

The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents employees in Silicon Valley and cities like Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Seattle, gives protection and resources to workers who join. Those who opt to become members will contribute 1% of their total compensation to the union to fund its efforts.

Several Google employees who had previously organized petitions and protests at the company objected to the CWA’S overtures. They said they declined to join because they worried that the effort had sidelined experienced organizers and played down the risks of organizing as it recruited members.

Amr Gaber, a Google software engineer who helped organize a 2018 walkout, said that CWA officials were dismissive of other labor groups that had supported Google workers during a December 2019 phone call with him and others.

“They are more concerned about claiming turf than the needs of the workers who were on the phone call ,” Gaber said.