Executives of the Alphabet Workers Union say discrimination and harassment continue and the company cracks down on those who are to speak out
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
The Alphabet Workers Union frames discrimination, harassment and alleged retaliation against outspoken employees as connected workplace issues rather than separate grievances. Related coverage later shows that pressure widening: more than 1,200 employees backed a call to stop protecting alleged harassers, while the union also pursued complaints involving contract workers.
The story sits in a longer tech-labor backdrop in which organizers faced managerial resistance and employers could absorb labor-case costs, as described in earlier reporting on the obstacles to tech unionization. It matters because the union is tying workplace protections to employees’ ability to organize and speak publicly.
First-order effects
Alphabet Workers Union executives place alleged harassment, discrimination and retaliation against employees who speak out at the center of their case for collective representation.
Employees raising workplace concerns gain a union vehicle for presenting those allegations as a shared employment issue rather than individual complaints.
Second-order effects
The allegations create a common organizing agenda for employees concerned with both misconduct policies and retaliation, a connection reflected in the later employee letter campaign.
If workplace-misconduct claims and organizing-rights claims continue to move together, tech-worker organizing will be defined as much by internal accountability as by conventional pay-and-benefits bargaining.
The extension of union complaints to vendor workforces points toward labor scrutiny of the employment arrangements around major tech companies, not only their core payrolls.
The trend: Tech-worker organizing is broadening from a narrow unionization fight into a vehicle for contesting workplace conduct, retaliation and contractor treatment.
a tiny fraction of google employees appropriating the language of exploited coal miners while enjoying the most privileged, white collar work experience in human history should not be the subject of glowing press. this isn't a union, it's a LARP. and it's offensive.
Many employees have called out @Google for POC workplace discrimination. Now 200+ staffers are unionizing to demand structural change! Corporations cannot continue to silence victims of discrimination. We must join together and give voice to the voiceless! https://www.nytimes.com…
More than 200 Google employees have formed a union. “For far too long, thousands of us at Google — and other subsidiaries of Alphabet, Google's parent company — have had our workplace concerns dismissed by executives,” write Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The statement seems extremely concerned with greater politics instead of workplace conditions. I think that was a mistake. They could have made a stronger case if they'd just focused on things unions can actually do something about: wages, hours, job security.
As always, we stand with workers unionizing for protections in the workplace. Black workers at Google especially must be compensated fairly and protected from retaliation. Support to them as they work to change the rules and to people like @TimnitGebru who are due justice. https:…
@WorkMJ I totally get the point of unions for low wage workers - you're fighting to win and maintain basic rights. But reading some of the stuff about tech workers unionising the things they're fighting for seem more... erm... self actualising.
It's significant that Google's new union will try & bring together full-time employees with Google's Temporary, Vendor or Contractor (TVC) contract workforce, which actually outnumbers Google's full time staff. https://twitter.com/...
Unions are the backbone of a stronger and fairer economy, and a ladder to the middle class. Congratulations to @AlphabetWorkers on joining with @CWAUnion to organize an inclusive union at @Google. https://www.nytimes.com/...
“Our union will be open to all Alphabet workers, regardless of classification. About half of the workers at Google are temps, vendors or contractors.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
In Opinion “We joined Alphabet because we wanted to build technology that improves the world,” write the executive and vice chairs of a newly formed union of Google workers. “Yet time and again, company leaders have put profits ahead of our concerns.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
“We care deeply about what we build and what it's used for. We are responsible for the technology we bring into the world. And we recognize that its implications reach far beyond the walls of Alphabet.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
“So far, 226 of us have signed union cards with the @CWAUnion — the first step in winning a recognized bargaining unit under U.S. law. In other words, we are forming a union.” And we are with you! #1u https://www.nytimes.com/...
This is right: *all* tech workers deserve a union—drivers, software engineers, security, cafeteria workers, everyone who makes these tech companies move. Solidarity with all the Alphabet workers at #AWU! https://twitter.com/...
“We care deeply about what we build and what it's used for. We are responsible for the technology we bring into the world.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Our executive chair & vice chair in the NYT this morning, explaining why we're building on past organizing at Google & starting #AWU. “We are joining together—temps, vendors, contractors, and full-time employees—to create a unified worker voice.” https://www.nytimes.com/...