Google workers have formed a union.
On Jan. 4, hundreds of employees at the internet giant unveiled the Alphabet Workers Union. As the name suggests, the union isn’t just open those working on the search product. It's open to all workers at Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
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As The New York Timespoints out, it’s not a traditional type of union. The Alphabet Workers Union is more focused on the company's policies than bargaining for higher wages.
Employees have voiced opinions on sexual harassment, diversity issues, and ethical concerns. Google employees have been punished, sometimes even fired, over their activism at the company.
Most recently, artificial intelligence expert Timnit Gebru was terminatedafter a dispute with Google leaders over a research paper she submitted. More than a thousand of her coworkers signed a letter backing Gebru.
Unions in the tech sector are rare, although there’s been a surge in the movement for them in recent years. The Alphabet Workers Union is currently made up of more than 225 Google workers. Alphabet currently has more than 260,000 full-time and contract workers.
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The Alphabet Workers Union has already received support from one major advocate for overhaulingthe tech industry, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
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The union is affiliated with the CWA, Communications Workers of America, which represents workers in the telecommunication fields in the U.S. It is one of the largest media labor unions with more than 700,000 members.