The unionization campaign is the latest signal
from employees who don’t believe the company
is living up to its professed ideals, as expressed
in its original “Don’t be evil” slogan.
Google said that it’s tried to create a supportive
and rewarding workplace but suggested it won’t
be negotiating directly with the union.
“Of course our employees have protected
labor rights that we support,” said a statement
from Kara Silverstein, the company’s director
of people operations. ”But as we’ve always
done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all
our employees.”
Unionization campaigns haven’t historically
been able to gain much traction among elite
tech workers, who get hefty salaries and other
perks like free food and shuttle rides to work.
But workplace activism at Google and other
big tech firms has grown in recent years as
employees call for better handling of sexual
harassment and discrimination and avoiding
harmful uses of the products they’re helping to
build and sell.
Many employees began seeing the power
of their workplace activism in 2018 when an
internal outcry led Google to abandon its
work supplying the Pentagon with artificial
intelligence services for conflict zones. Later in
2018, thousands of Google employees walked
out to protest how the company handled sexual
misconduct allegations against executives.
Google software engineer Chewy Shaw, who
has been elected to the new union’s executive
council, said he and others decided to form the
group after seeing colleagues pushed out of
their roles for their activism.