The employees started a new union inside the tech giant Google, and the union is named as ‘Alphabet Workers’ Union’. The organization has 225 employees, including engineers from Google and its parent company, Alphabet. The union said all workers and contractors could join their organization and mentioned that the ranks’ size is not taken into account.
The union will also have a board of directors. Unions are rarely found in such giant American companies as Google. The new organization also has the support of the Communications Workers of America(CWA). CODE-CWA is a new division formed by CWA for the technology companies. Everyone who joins the Alphabet Workers’ Union will naturally become a member of the CWA Local 1400.
The organizers said they would hire people with leadership skills to head their organization. The organization’s representatives said that the organization would work to ensure decent pay, anti-exploitation, anti-ragging, and work without fear of discrimination. The new organization may also be limiting the powers of the company’s executives, and thus, it can make a revolution. All other companies in Silicon Valley fear whether the new organization will achieve its objectives and become a threat. Those who announced that the union was about to begin operations did not disclose their full objectives. The company has previously tried to thwart such a move.
Over the past few years, Google has had several encounters with employees. Google’s aid to the U.S. military, discriminatory treatment of employees, and executives’ expulsion for sexual misconduct have sparked outrage among employees.
Google’s Artificial Intelligence, which dealt with the Pentagon, was canceled in 2018 due to workers’ protests. Employee riots in Google took several precautions that year. CWA has been trying to attract employees of Google since 2019. The CWA has also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that Google fired employees for participating in union activities.
Allegations were even leveled against the company that it was secretly monitoring employees to keep them in position.
However, Google claimed that they hadn’t done anything like that. The company claims that they are in line with the workers’ rights and that the dismissal was due to the discovery of completely unacceptable activities. However, the question now is whether the new move will change the tech sector itself.
