YouTube Music workers in the Austin, TX area who voted to unionize are on strike. The Alphabet Works Union-CWA (AWU-CWA), which represents the contractors, says this is the first time a group of Google-affiliated workers has gone on strike.
Cognizant, an Alphabet subcontractor, works with the (more than 40) striking workers. They say Alphabet’s current return to the office date of February 6th threatens their safety and livelihood, as their $19-an-hour wage makes it difficult to pay for relocation, travel and medical care costs. AWU-CWA says that most of the contractors were hired to work remotely and nearly a quarter of them do not live in Texas.
YouTube workers say Alphabet and Cognizant only announced the abrupt return to office after they had already voted to unionize. In addition, they accuse managers of sending work to other offices to “chill” union efforts, adding that a supervisor made implicit anti-union threats. Finally, the workers have appealed to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to be recognized as “joint employees” by Cognizant and Alphabet; the designation would force Alphabet to bargain based on US labor laws.
“The layoffs showed that we are just spreadsheet entries for Google executives. This is not the Google I thought I joined. This strike is what I joined Google for. Thank you.” – Google software engineer spoke out in support of striking workers #YouTube strike
— Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA) (@AlphabetWorkers) February 3, 2023
Although it wasn’t a labor strike, 20,000 Google workers from 50 offices participated in a 2018 walkout. That move was in response to the company’s practice of rewarding executives accused of misconduct.
The YouTube Music strike began today at noon EST outside the Google office in Austin. If you live elsewhere, you can sign up for a live streaming of the strike On Facebook.
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