Hundreds of Google workers form the Alphabet Workers Union after multi-year struggle

[CitizenVectron]

Hundreds of Google Employees Unionize, Culminating Years of Activism - The New York Times

WWW.NYTIMES.COM

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The creation of the union, a rarity in Silicon Valley, follows years of increasing outspokenness by Google workers. Executives have struggled to handle the change.

 

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OAKLAND, Calif. — More than 225 Google engineers and other workers have formed a union, the group revealed on Monday, capping years of growing activism at one of the world’s largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for labor organizers in staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley.

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, a union that represents workers in telecommunications and media in the United States and Canada.

 

However, it is not large enough to negotiate contracts, yet:

 

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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. Workers said it was primarily an effort to give structure and longevity to activism at Google, rather than to negotiate for a contract.

 

And really interesting:

 

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The structure also gives the union the latitude to include Google contractors, who outnumber full-time workers and who would be excluded from a traditional union. Some Google employees have considered establishing a minority or solidarity union for several years, and ride-hailing drivers have formed similar groups.

 

So hopefully the first step towards the unionization of software engineers, developers, and others in the tech sector. 

[mclumber1]

It will be interesting to see how many employees end up signing up. 

[Uaarkson]

So in another 40 years, tech companies will get tired of dealing with the unions and will pull up stakes, move all their software development to Indonesia or whatever, and then the entire Bay Area collapses. Where have I seen this before 

[CitizenVectron]

10 minutes ago, Uaarkson said:

So in another 40 years, tech companies will get tired of dealing with the unions and will pull up stakes, move all their software development to Indonesia or whatever, and then the entire Bay Area collapses. Where have I seen this before 

 

Then politicians will campaign through the "silicon belt" and go on and on about "bringing real American tech jobs back, just like our grandpappies!"