Google employees unionized

Washington, January 4 (EFE) .- About 200 employees of Google and other companies owned by Alphabet announced today the formation of a union in the company, after a year of secret organization, reported Communication Workers of America (CWA)).

The union, called the Alphabet Workers Union and affiliated with CWA, will be the first to open to members of all employees and contractors in any Alphabet company, for which members will pay dues, elect a board of directors and have permanent representatives.

CWA represents unionized employees working for AT&T in Puerto Rico, now Liberty Puerto Rico.

“Our union provides a sustainable structure to ensure that the values ​​we share as Alphabet employees are respected,” said Nicky Anselmo, a program manager quoted by CWA.

Anselmo added that workers have been fighting for years with their employers and protested against “huge and multi-million dollar payments to directors who have engaged in sexual harassment.”

For his part, Don Trementozzi, president of the local CWA, said his organization “is a democratic, member-led union with experience in training and supporting workers’ power in some of the largest companies in the United States. United”.

CWA, which represents workers in the field of telecommunications and traditional and digital media, is one of the largest unions in the country, with over 700,000 members.

Alphabet currently has approximately 260,000 employeesBut nearly half of Google’s 120,000 employees in Alphabet are temporary, contractors or subcontractors who do not benefit from full-time employees.

The number of American workers fell from 35% in 1954 to 20% in 1984 and 10% in 2019, while conditions and prospects for the middle class deteriorated.

The absence of union representation and collective bargaining is even more visible in the field of high technology and The New York Times reported that the new union “rarely opens a beachhead for union organizers in Silicon Valley, a staunch anti-union environment.”

In recent years, employees at companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Pinterest and others in the digital universe have gathered around issues such as diversity, wage discrimination and sexual harassment.

“Our goals go beyond the question, ‘Are people well paid?’ “Chewy Shaw, a Google engineer in San Francisco and vice chairman of the organizing committee, told The New York Times.” “Our concerns are much broader,” he added.

“The alphabet continues to punish those who dare to speak and prevents workers from talking about sensitive issues that are of public importance, such as monopolies,” he added.

According to the CWA, the Google workers who have now organized have been subjected to “blatantly illegal” intimidation and dismissal, which they said was recently confirmed by the Labor Relations Board.

“Instead of listening to its employees, Google hired IRI Labor Relations, a notorious anti-union firm, to thwart the organization,” he added. “This is how Google executives chose to interact with employees.”