Google workers have formed a union

Google was arguably at the epicentre of the origins of the tech worker movement. The Damore memo and the Walkout, for example were both moments that shifted the company’s motto – don’t be evil – from a fuzzy expression of big tech’s do-gooderism to an ironic line about the industry’s apolitical liberalism. Now, Google employees have taken another important step with the launch of an official union. Named the Alphabet Workers Union (Alphabet is Google’s parent company), it has the backing of the Communication Workers Union (CWA). The CWA is one of the largest unions in the United States.

In a statement to the press, Dylan Baker, one of the union’s members, described the launch as “historic.” It is, he pointed out, “the first union at a major tech company by and for all tech workers.” However, it isn’t yet formally recognised by Google. For that to happen the union will need to formally request recognition from the company, or hold an election where 50% of members agree to formally unionize.

At present, the union consists of more than 220 Google employees. They all describe their reasons for joining on this page. “Google wasn’t built by two people in a garage 20 years ago,” one software engineer says. “It’s being built every single day by the labor of hundreds and thousands of workers, pouring our passion into something we actually give a damn about.”

Why did Google employees form a union?

As the page highlights, every union member has their own unique reasons for joining. However, there are a number of key issues that union members are eager to address. These include discrimination and sexual harassment – “As a trans person, I’ve experienced blatant discrimination in the industry,” says Site Reliability Engineer Cassandra Fox – and the way the company makes decisions about how and where their products are used.

Many also spoke of the way Google exploits contract labourers. Contractors (known as TVCs) make up more than half of Google’s workforce, but they are not afforded the same employment rights as permanent staff.This has been described by some as a kind of internal caste system. Software engineer and union member Francis Carr said “the work of many Google TVCs is critical to corporate goals, yet these co-workers are segregated into a second-class caste and denied equitable working conditions.”

Because the union is open to contractors as well as permanent employees, the union is seeking to ensure solidarity across all categories of employees across the company.

What will the Google union do first?

Although the union could make a move for formal recognition from Google, there is no indication that this is the course of action members will take.

As Lauren Kaori Gurley explains in Motherboard “this unionization strategy is somewhat different from those that often happen at smaller companies, where union drives are typically made public once a union is certain it has enough support from workers to qualify for an election or gain voluntary recognition from an employer.” Gurley suggests that this approach will allow Google employees to build up support across “a massive, disjointed, and complicated company that has already made it clear through its actions that it [will] not support employee efforts to unionize,” and attempt to influence decisions in a more informal manner.

How will Google respond?

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 prevents Google from taking any action against employees involved in union activity. However, the company has very recently come under fire for doing just that. At the end of 2020 the National Labor Relations Board alleged Google was acting against employees seeking to exercise their right to organize.

The one comment to come out of the company has been noncommittal. Kara Silverstein, who is Director of People Operations said that Google has “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.”

A significant moment in tech activism

This is undoubtedly a significant moment in the emergence of the tech worker movement. Although white collar tech workers at Kickstarter and Glitch both founded unions in 2020, the workforce at both organizations was relatively small. This meant the reach and power of those two unions are confined to the specifics of those respective companies. At Google however, the Alphabet Workers Union is now open to more than a quarter of a million people.

If those 200-odd founding members can engage those around them and encourage further solidarity, its impact could be astonishing.