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The union is likely to escalate tensions between Google engineers, who work on self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and internet research, and company management. Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google, and other executives have tried to confront an increasingly activist workforce – but have stumbled.
Federal officials last month said Google wrongly fired two employees who protested their work with immigration authorities in 2019. Timnit Gebru, a black woman who is a respected artificial intelligence researcher, also said Google last month fired her after criticizing the company’s approach. minority hiring and the prejudices embedded in AI systems. His departure sparked a storm of criticism over Google’s treatment of minority employees.
“These companies find a bone in their throat to have even a small group of people who say, ‘We work at Google and have a different point of view,” said Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Google may well succeed in decimating any organization that comes forward.”
The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents employees in Silicon Valley and cities like Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Seattle, provides protection and resources to workers who join them. Those who choose to become members will donate 1 percent of their total compensation to the union to fund its efforts.
Over the past year, the CWA has pushed to organize white-collar tech workers. (The NewsGuild, a union that represents New York Times employees, is part of CWA) The campaign initially focused on employees at video game companies, who often work grueling hours and face layoffs .
In late 2019, CWA organizers began meeting with Google employees to discuss a union campaign, workers who attended the meetings said. Some employees were receptive and signed cards to officially join the union last summer. In December, the Alphabet Workers’ Union held elections to select an executive council of seven.
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