Workers at Google’s controlling company Alphabet announced the formation of a coalition of unions around the world on Monday (25).
Called Alpha Global, the alliance has 13 unions representing employees in 10 countries including the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. There is no union in Brazil.
Exceeds the alphabet Outsourced 220 thousand employees worldwideAccording to the New York Times.
Is group Affiliated with UNI Global Union, A trade union federation based in Switzerland that represents over 20 million workers in various sectors.
The coalition’s announcement comes a week after Alphabet’s workers in the US formed their own union – which currently has more than 700 partners.
Like Alphabet Workers Union in America, coalition will be sought Bargaining power with the company through the employees’ union. There is no binding agreement between the union and the alphabet.
- Know more: Alphabet employees form associations in America
This is how UNI Global Union works with other companies. In 2020, she helped organize an international strike for Amazon workers during Black Friday.
The protests called for better payment conditions and transparency on the payment of taxes. According to the news agency Reuters, the initiative was supported by more than 400 MPs from 34 countries.
“Problems on the alphabet – and created by the alphabet – are not limited to just one country and need to be addressed globally,” UNI Secretary General Christie Hoffman said in a statement.
Among the objectives listed by Alpha Global are:
- Creating a general strategy and supporting collective demands;
- Work together to build local organizations that reflect employee values and interests;
- Fight for the rights of Alphabet’s direct employees, as well as temporary and outsourced employees.
Overall, the alliance includes unions from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the United States, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Italy, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Trade union organization is rare among workers in the technology sector. However, Relations between staff and executive leaders of the alphabet have been tense In the last year.
In 2018, thousands of workers left offices and protested sexual harassment scandals and how the company dealt with these cases, in the so-called “Google Walkout”.
The protest came after a New York Times report that the The company protected Andy Rubin, A senior executive director of Android Systems, Accused of harassment. He left the company with a $ 90 million bonus.
- Know more: The newspaper says that Google is facing retaliation from protesters
Google employees protested worldwide against sexual harassment in November 2018 – Photo: Reuters / Stephen Lam
Also in 2018, Google employees wrote a letter to the company’s CEO Sundar Pichai, asking them to end a partnership with the Pentagon that would develop an artificial intelligence (AI) program called Project Maven. The pressure worked, with the company abandoning the project aside.
The same year, another movement of workers prompted Google to abandon the Dragonfly project, which plans to launch a censored version of online search services in China.
In late 2020, thousands of Google professionals and academic supporters signed a petition against the dismissal of artificial intelligence scientist Timneet Gabru.
She sent an internal email accusing Google of “silent marginal voices” by superiors for not publishing scientific articles or removing her name and associates. Gabru was expelled from the company shortly afterwards.
The company is now investigating another researcher on artificial intelligence (AI) ethics, Margaret Mitchell, for allegedly downloading large numbers of files and sharing them with third parties.
Last December, the National Council for Labor Relations accused Google of illegally spying on employees organizing protests and firing two of them in retaliation.
