“We Built Google. This Is Not the Company We Want to Work For.” - @AlphabetWorkers #GoogleUnion #AlphabetUnion
On Nov. 1, 2018, at 11:10 am, some 20k Alphabet employees stopped working & walked off the job around the world. 1/24 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/opinion/google-union.html

A week earlier, The New York Times reported that the company had paid tens of millions of dollars to two executives who had been accused of sexual misconduct toward our co-workers, staying silent about the alleged abuse and letting them walk away with no consequences. 2/24

People speaking at the protests that morning recounted their experiences of harassment & discrimination at the company. In San Francisco, a woman held a sign reading, “I reported & he got promoted.” Others read, “Happy to quit for $90 million, no sexual harassment required” 3/24

...and “Unfair workplaces create unfair platforms.”
We’d had enough.
The 2 of us are software engineers, & we were recently elected exec chair & vice chair of @AlphabetWorkers, a group of >200 workers in the United States who believe our company’s structure needs to change. 4/24

For far too long, thousands of us at Google — & other subsidiaries of Alphabet, Google’s parent company — have had our workplace concerns dismissed by executives. Our bosses have collaborated w/ repressive govs around the world. 5/24

They have developed AI for use by the Department of Defense & profited from ads by a hate group. They have failed to make the changes necessary to meaningfully address our retention issues with people of color. 6/24

Most recently, Timnit Gebru, a leading artificial intelligence researcher & one of the few Black women in her field, said she was fired over her work to fight bias. Her offense? Conducting research critical of large-scale AI models and being critical of existing D&I efforts. 7/24

In response, thousands of our colleagues organized, demanding an explanation. Both of us have heard from colleagues — some new, some with over a decade at the company — who have decided that working at Alphabet is no longer a choice they can make in good conscience. 8/24

Workers have mobilized against these abuses before. Organized workers forced executives to drop Project Maven, the company’s AI program w/ the Pentagon, & Project Dragonfly, its plan to launch a censored search engine in China. Some of Alphabet’s subcontractors won a $15 min 9/24

hourly wage, parental leave, & health insurance after employee outcry. Forced arbitration for claims of sexual harassment ended after the walkout—albeit only for full-time emps, not contractors. A few months later, Google ended forced arb ( @endforcedarb) for all emp claims. 10/24

To those who are skeptical of unions or believe that tech companies are more innovative w/out unions, we point out that these and other larger problems persist. Discrimination/harassment continue. 11/24

Alphabet continues to crack down on those who dare to speak out, & keep workers from speaking on sensitive & publicly important topics, like antitrust & monopoly power. 12/24

For a handful of wealthy executives, this discrimination & unethical working environment are working as intended, at the cost of workers w/ less institutional power, especially Black, brown, queer, trans, disabled, and women workers. 13/24

It’s not enough. Today, we’re building on years of organizing efforts at Google to create a formal structure for workers. So far, 226 of us have signed union cards w/ @CODE_CWA — the first step in winning a recognized bargaining unit. In other words, we are forming a union. 14/24

We are the workers who built Alphabet. We write code, clean offices, serve food, drive buses, test self-driving cars & do everything needed to keep this behemoth running. We joined Alphabet bc we wanted to build technology that improves the world. 15/24

Yet time & again, company leaders have put profits ahead of our concerns. We’re joining together — temps, vendors, contractors, and full-time employees — to create a unified worker voice. 16/24

We want Alphabet to be a company where workers have a meaningful say in decisions that affect us and the societies we live in. As union members, we have created an elected leadership and representative structure with dues-paying members. 17/24

Our union will be open to all Alphabet workers, regardless of classification. About half of the workers at Google are temps, vendors or contractors. They are paid lower salaries, receive fewer benefits, and have little job stability compared with full-time employees... 18/24

...even though they often do the exact same work. They are also more likely to be Black or brown — a segregated employment system that keeps half of the company’s work force in second-class roles. Our union will seek to undo this grave inequity. 19/24

Everyone at Alphabet — from bus drivers to programmers, from salespeople to janitors — plays a critical part in developing our tech. But right now, wealthy executives define what the company produces & how workers are treated. This isn’t the company we want to work for. 20/24

We care deeply about what we build and what it’s used for. We are responsible for the tech we bring into the world. & we recognize that its implications reach far beyond the walls of Alphabet. Our union will work to ensure that workers know what they’re working on, & can do 21/24

...their work at a fair wage, w/out fear of abuse, retaliation or discrimination. When Google went public in 2004, it said it would do “good things for the world even if we forgo some short-term gains.” Its motto used to be “Don’t be evil.” We’ll live by that motto. 22/24

Alphabet is a powerful company, responsible for vast swaths of the internet. It’s used by billions of people across the world. It has a responsibility to prioritize public good. It has a resp to its 1000s of workers/billions of users to make the world a better place. 23/24

As Alphabet workers, we can help build that world. 24/24

Follow @AlphabetWorkers for more! #GoogleUnion #AlphabetUnion