Posts tagged Alphabet Workers Union
Google contractors vote to unionize in historic landslide election
April 27, 2023 // The unionization vote passed 41-0. The National Labor Relations Board representative counting the ballots said 49 workers were eligible to vote. The employees work for the subcontractor Cognizant on content operations for Google’s YouTube Music, resolving bugs and completing other tasks to ensure the streaming service runs smoothly. Google continues to argue that Cognizant is the workers’ sole employer and says the Mountain View-based tech giant should not be forced to negotiate with the workers. Held via mail-in ballot, the election creates a bargaining unit with the Alphabet Workers Union — an organization affiliated with the Communications Workers of America that, until now, has represented only one office of unionized Google workers, a contracted Fiber retail shop in Missouri. Those workers opted to drop Google from their petition.
Labor board decision could force Google to negotiate with YouTube contractors
March 7, 2023 // Alphabet has been labeled a joint employer, which may have some big ramifications for workers if they decide to unionize. For its part, Alphabet intends to appeal the NLRB’s decision. “We simply don’t control these workers’ employment terms or working conditions,” spokesperson Courtenay Mencini told Bloomberg. In addition to the union drive and fight to get Alphabet recognized as a joint employer, the contractors went on strike in February to protest return to office orders — the first strike at the company, according to the AWU. The dates for the union election haven’t been publicly announced yet.
YouTube Music Workers Strike in Austin Over ‘Anti-Union’ Return-to-Office Mandate
February 24, 2023 // Gossell and Marschner are upset that Google, whom they see as their employer, has deferred to Cognizant. “I’ve gone through Google training. I go through their security training. I go through their ethics training…. [But] if we want to negotiate over pay, they say, ‘Pay is based on the contract we have with Google, so we can’t bargain over that.'” Marschner says. The employees, affiliated with the Alphabet Workers Union, which has never held a strike, are awaiting National Labor Relations Board decisions on their election petition and the two Unfair Labor Practice complaints. “It’s going to be a long labor movement, because we’re not stopping until we have a union,” Gossell says. Referring to recent union activity at Amazon, Disney and Tesla, he adds: “I’m not saying we’re the tip of the spear, but we’re part of something bigger that’s going on in America. All you have to do is pick up a history book to see how this ends.”
Exclusive: YouTube contractors to strike over forced return to office
February 6, 2023 // Cognizant says that the workers' contracts have always stated that the jobs were in-office jobs and that it communicated to workers since Dec. 2021 that it would provide 90 days notice when employees were expected back in the office. "Cognizant respects the right of our associates to disagree with our policies, and to protest them lawfully," the company said in a statement to Axios. "However, it is disappointing that some of our associates have chosen to strike over a return to office policy that has been communicated to them repeatedly since December 2021."
YouTube’s in-office mandate is ploy to squash unions, workers claim
January 31, 2023 // An NLRB complaint filed Jan. 24 alleges that Alphabet’s return-to-work mandate is a “response to the union effort.” A spokesperson for Cognizant told HR Dive that the employer had communicated return-to-office policies “repeatedly and consistently” to all of its workers since December 2021 via email, the company’s internal website and team meetings, the spokesperson said. “The employees in Austin were fully aware of the intention to return to the office prior to the filing of a [NLRB] petition. Moreover, all associates working on this project were hired with the understanding that the jobs were based in an Austin office location,” the spokesperson said. “The small number of associates who voluntarily left the Austin area, and are unable or unwilling to return have the opportunity to be considered for assignments on other client projects at Cognizant. There is simply no merit to these claims.”
Tech Layoffs Threaten Unions’ Plan to Draw White-Collar Workers
January 18, 2023 // Some 500 technology companies have axed nearly 100,000 workers since last October, according to Layoffs.fyi, a public database of tech layoffs. Amazon this month announced it would cut 18,000 jobs, and on the same day, cloud computing company Salesforce and the online video-sharing service Vimeo said they would slash 10% and 11% of their staffs, respectively. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said in November it would eliminate 11,000 jobs—about 13% of its staff. Those reductions in force don’t bode well for unions that have increasingly funneled resources into tech organizing, which was, until recently, seen as an ever-growing pool of potential members. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, last year raised membership fees for the first time in two decades, hoping to raise $10 million a year for new organizing. Union leaders this month flocked to Las Vegas for the CES technology conference, set on understanding how the latest innovations in artificial intelligence could disrupt their industries.
UNION CLAIMS ALPHABET BLOCKS WORKERS FROM ACCESSING PAY TRANSPARENCY DATA
November 8, 2022 // Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America, which seeks to represent directly employed and contingent workers at Google, on Thursday filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. It alleges Alphabet and two of its staffing vendors prohibited contract workers from accessing an internal pay transparency spreadsheet. Accenture Flex and Crowd Staffing,
YouTube Music contractors vote to unionize
October 26, 2022 // The AWU-CWA says it "won't stop organizing until all Alphabet workers (full-time, temporary, vendor and contract workers) have dignity on the job, the pay and benefits we deserve, and a seat at the table."
Maryland Apple store workers face hurdles after their vote to unionize
June 22, 2022 // Ruth Milkman, Michael Duff, Josh Lipton,
CONTRACT WORKERS’ STRIKE THREAT DELAYS RETURN-TO-OFFICE DEADLINE AT GOOGLE MAPS
June 9, 2022 // Google Maps contract workers won’t have to return to the office today, the Alphabet Workers Union announced. They received a 90-day extension from their employer, IT services firm Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH). The contract workers — who are based at Google’s office in Bothell, Washington — threatened on June 2 to strike over a requirement they return to the office. Cognizant emailed the 90-day extension shortly thereafter. Shelby Hunter, organizing, strategic, financial support, Monika Moore, Staffing Industry Analyst