“We have had enough”. Anger is roaring among Google employees. In a column published in the New York Times, two of them announced the creation of the group’s first union. An initiative still rare among the giants of the tech and which comes to mar the image of paradise for the workers so far assigned to the firm of Mountain View. According to its founders, the union’s mission will be to improve the working conditions in place, as well as, more broadly, to reflect on the role of technology in our society.
“We hope to create a democratic process for employees so that they can exercise their power, promote social, economic and environmental justice; and end unjust disparities, ” explain Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw, two engineers behind the initiative. They make particular reference in the forum to the signature of Google “don’t be evil” ( “do not be evil”), assuring that they wish to “follow this motto”.
Will Google accept the creation of this first union?
The question arises in view of the methods used by the firm to prevent any organization of this type. Last month, a complaint by the National Labor Relations Board, a public agency for workers, denounced the policy of terror by means of illegal espionage and unfair dismissals put in place by Google. In addition, the dismissal of a black researcher focusing on the ethics of artificial intelligence would have, among other things, pushed employees to create the union.
However, for the latter to be effective, the founders must obtain the agreement of 30% of the employees of Alphabet, the group to which Google belongs. Out of 130,000 employees, 226 have so far declared their support for the initiative. This figure is not surprising, since companies in Silicon Valley have a habit of calling on large law firms to put an end to these attempts. Trade unionists thus expose themselves to acts of harassment and even dismissal.