Hundreds of Google workers form labour union in the US

The new group will work to ensure that Alphabet employees receive a fair wage, without fear of discrimination or retaliation

More than 200 workers at Google's parent company Alphabet announced on Monday that they have formed a labour union, as part of efforts to promote workplace equity and ethical business practices at the company.

Software engineers at Google organised the Alphabet Workers Union, but entry is open to all US and Canadian workers at Alphabet. That includes full-time employees, temporary workers, contractors and other vendors.

The group is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which represents workers in telecommunications and media in the US and Canada.

However, unlike a typical worker union, the Alphabet Workers Union is a minority union, representing just a fraction of the Alphabet's more than 260,000 full-time employees, contractors, and temporary staff.

The elected leaders of the union said that the group will work to ensure that employees at Alphabet work at a fair wage, without fear of abuse, discrimination or retaliation. They added that the new union will provide a platform for workers to speak out against discriminatory work practices at Google, and how the firm handles issues like online hate speech.

"This union builds upon years of courageous organising by Google workers," Nicki Anselmo, Programme Manager, said.

"From fighting the 'real names' policy, to opposing Project Maven, to protesting the egregious, multi-million dollar payouts that have been given to executives who've committed sexual harassment, we've seen first-hand that Alphabet responds when we act collectively," she added.

Unions are something of a rarity among big tech employees in North America, where they tend to enjoy high salaries and perks such as free food and travel to work. However, recent activism has demonstrated the power that employees hold.

The announcement of the new union comes less than a month after Google's firing of high-profile AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru, who said that she was terminated for sending an internal email accusing the firm of "silencing marginalised voices".

More than 2,000 Google employees signed an open letter to Google last month in support of Gebru. They demanded that the company show transparency, and asked for an investigation into how the firm handles employee complaints about working conditions.

In a separate case, a group of researchers from Google's Ethical AI team wrote a letter to the company's senior officials, asking the company to commit to new policies and bring greater academic freedom for workers.

In 2018, thousands of Google employees had staged a walkout in Google campuses worldwide to protest against alleged mishandling of sexual harassment allegations by the company's management.

The same year, hundreds of Google employees wrote public letters criticising the company for its role in developing a censored search engine in China - a project that was later dumped by Google.

In a statement to the Guardian, Kara Silverstein, Google's director of human resources, argued that the firm had made every effort in the past to "create a supportive and rewarding workplace" for its employees.

"Of course our employees have protected labor rights that we support," she said. "But as we've always done, we'll continue engaging directly with all our employees."