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Google and trade unions
Tensions between the multinational technology company Google and its workers escalated in 2018 and 2019 as staff protested company decisions on a censored search engine for China, military drone artificial intelligence, and internal sexual harassment.
Google employees formed trade unions in South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom and elected a staff council in Switzerland. Subcontractors form basis for majority of unionizing at Google, including cafeteria services. The Alphabet Workers Union organizes workers across Alphabet Inc in the United States, the parent company of Google.
Alphabet, the parent company of the multinational technology company Google, has over 100,000 full-time employees internationally, in addition to contract employees. About half of Google's total workers are contractors, known internally as "TVCs": temps, vendors, and contractors.[additional citation(s) needed] Google has seen a rise in worker activism since 2018, with a swiftly changing internal culture in which staff have been alienated by scandals including a 2017 memo about Google's culture and diversity policies, revelation of a large exit package offered to an executive accused of sexual harassment, and staff accusations of retaliation. Under the company's "third era"—in which Google contends with the effects of having brought its technology to scale—The Verge wrote that the foremost task of Google CEO Sundar Pichai is to stabilize the company's culture.
A 20,000-employee walkout against Google executive sexual misconduct in November 2018 led to the company board opening an investigation. The walkout hastened organizing and protests within the company. Subsequent worker activism over work with the Pentagon and a censored Chinese search engine often entered the media spotlight. An engineer started a strike fund, matched by her own donation.
By mid-2019, Google appeared to push employee organizers to leave. Walkout organizers said that they were put on administrative leave for opaque reasons. In April, walkout organizers Meredith Whittaker and Claire Stapleton wrote that they were being demoted or reassigned as retaliation for their organizing. Stapleton left Google in June and Whittaker in July. In response, some employees participated in a sit-in and demanded that Google investigate its HR department. The company denied the allegations but instituted new policies against employee protest and in-office politics, which further eroded worker trust from parts of its staff. A September settlement with the National Labor Relations Board in response to Stapleton and Whittaker's departures required policy clarifications that explicitly let employees act collectively and discuss workplace issues with each other and the press. The settlement did not reduce tensions, which re-escalated in November when The New York Times reported that Google had been working for several months with IRI Consultants, a firm known for promoting union busting.
On January 25, 2020, the formation of an international alliance of Google trade unions, Alpha Global, was announced. The coalition is made up of "13 different unions representing workers in 10 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Switzerland." The group is affiliated with UNI Global Union. The formation of the alliance is in response to persistent allegations of mistreatment of Google employees and a toxic workplace culture. Google had previously been accused of surveilling and firing employees who were suspected of organizing a workers union. In 2021 court documents revealed that between 2018 and 2020 Google ran an anti-union campaign called Project Vivian to "convince them (employees) that unions suck".
153 Google employees in 11 different European countries launched the process of forming a European Works Council. In March 2023, Google and the employee led Special Negotiating Body signed a European Works Council framework agreement and set an election date for 6 months later. The agreement notably includes the United Kingdom and Switzerland Google offices, even though they are not part of the European Union.
In April 2023, Google Korea and Google Cloud Korea formed a union with Korea Finance & Service Workers Union, which is affiliated to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to represent the 850 employees of Google Korea.
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Google and trade unions
Tensions between the multinational technology company Google and its workers escalated in 2018 and 2019 as staff protested company decisions on a censored search engine for China, military drone artificial intelligence, and internal sexual harassment.
Google employees formed trade unions in South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom and elected a staff council in Switzerland. Subcontractors form basis for majority of unionizing at Google, including cafeteria services. The Alphabet Workers Union organizes workers across Alphabet Inc in the United States, the parent company of Google.
Alphabet, the parent company of the multinational technology company Google, has over 100,000 full-time employees internationally, in addition to contract employees. About half of Google's total workers are contractors, known internally as "TVCs": temps, vendors, and contractors.[additional citation(s) needed] Google has seen a rise in worker activism since 2018, with a swiftly changing internal culture in which staff have been alienated by scandals including a 2017 memo about Google's culture and diversity policies, revelation of a large exit package offered to an executive accused of sexual harassment, and staff accusations of retaliation. Under the company's "third era"—in which Google contends with the effects of having brought its technology to scale—The Verge wrote that the foremost task of Google CEO Sundar Pichai is to stabilize the company's culture.
A 20,000-employee walkout against Google executive sexual misconduct in November 2018 led to the company board opening an investigation. The walkout hastened organizing and protests within the company. Subsequent worker activism over work with the Pentagon and a censored Chinese search engine often entered the media spotlight. An engineer started a strike fund, matched by her own donation.
By mid-2019, Google appeared to push employee organizers to leave. Walkout organizers said that they were put on administrative leave for opaque reasons. In April, walkout organizers Meredith Whittaker and Claire Stapleton wrote that they were being demoted or reassigned as retaliation for their organizing. Stapleton left Google in June and Whittaker in July. In response, some employees participated in a sit-in and demanded that Google investigate its HR department. The company denied the allegations but instituted new policies against employee protest and in-office politics, which further eroded worker trust from parts of its staff. A September settlement with the National Labor Relations Board in response to Stapleton and Whittaker's departures required policy clarifications that explicitly let employees act collectively and discuss workplace issues with each other and the press. The settlement did not reduce tensions, which re-escalated in November when The New York Times reported that Google had been working for several months with IRI Consultants, a firm known for promoting union busting.
On January 25, 2020, the formation of an international alliance of Google trade unions, Alpha Global, was announced. The coalition is made up of "13 different unions representing workers in 10 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Switzerland." The group is affiliated with UNI Global Union. The formation of the alliance is in response to persistent allegations of mistreatment of Google employees and a toxic workplace culture. Google had previously been accused of surveilling and firing employees who were suspected of organizing a workers union. In 2021 court documents revealed that between 2018 and 2020 Google ran an anti-union campaign called Project Vivian to "convince them (employees) that unions suck".
153 Google employees in 11 different European countries launched the process of forming a European Works Council. In March 2023, Google and the employee led Special Negotiating Body signed a European Works Council framework agreement and set an election date for 6 months later. The agreement notably includes the United Kingdom and Switzerland Google offices, even though they are not part of the European Union.
In April 2023, Google Korea and Google Cloud Korea formed a union with Korea Finance & Service Workers Union, which is affiliated to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to represent the 850 employees of Google Korea.