Google workers forms labour union, a tech rarity

A group of more than 200 Google and Alphabet workers have announced the formation of the Alphabet Workers Union, The New York Times report said on January 4.

The labour union which is a rare of the rarest, aims to promote workplace equity and ethical business practices.

The “Alphabet Workers Union” will collect dues of 1% of total compensation from members, according to its websites. Those dues will be used to help compensate workers for lost wages in the event of a labour strike. The bulk of the workers who have signed on are mostly based in offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and one in Cambrigde.

The new union, which will be affiliated with the larger Communication Workers of America, says it will serve as a structure that ensure Google workers can actively push for real changes at the company.

Its members say they want more of a voice not just on wages, benefits and protections against discrimination and harassment but also broader ethical questions about how Google pursues its business ventures.

The Alphabet Workers Union is a bit untraditional. Workplace activism at Google and other big tech firms has grown in recent years as employers seek better handling of workplace sexual harassment and discrimination and to avoid harmful uses of the products they are helping to build and sell.

Google engineer Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw are the executive chair and vice chair of the Alphabet Workers Union, respectively.

“Our union will work to ensure that workers know what they’re working on, and can do their work at a fair wage, without fear of abuse, retaliation or discrimination,” Google engineers Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw wrote in a New York Times opinion piece on Monday announcing the union.

The union comes after following the creation of union at tech companies Kickstarted and Glitch early last year.

Google has been at the center of a plethora of labour issues over the past few years. The tech company has been under fire from the United States labour regulator, which has accused the company of unlawfully questioning several workers who were then terminated for protesting company policies and trying to organise a union. Google has said it was confident it acted legally.