Google employees are unionized

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

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

The CWA represents in Puerto Rico the unionized employees who work for AT&T, now Liberty Puerto Rico.

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

Anselmo added that workers have been fighting for years with their employers and have protested against “egregious payments and for several million dollars given to executives who have committed sexual harassment.”

For his part, Mr. Trementozzi, president of the local area of ​​CWA indicated that his organization “is a democratic guild, led by members, with experience in training and supporting the power of workers in some of the largest companies in the United States “.

The CWA, which represents workers in the areas of traditional and digital telecommunications and media, is one of the largest trade union organizations in the country with more than 700,000 members.

Alphabet currently has about 260,000 employees, But nearly half of Google’s 120,000 employees at Alphabet companies are temporary employees, contractors or subcontractors who do not have the benefits given to full-time employees.

The affiliation of American workers has decreased from 35% in 1954 to 20% in 1984 and 10% in 2019, at a time when the conditions and prospects of the middle class have been deteriorating.

The absence of trade union representation and collective bargaining is even more noticeable in the high-tech and The New York Times reported that the new guild “opens a rare beachhead for union organizers in Silicon Valley, a decidedly anti-union environment.”

In recent years, employees of firms such as Amazon, Salesforce, Pinterest and others in the digital universe have mobilized around issues such as diversity, pay discrimination and sexual harassment.

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

“Alphabet continues to punish those who dare to raise their voices, and prevents workers from speaking out on sensitive issues that are of public importance, such as monopolies,” he added.

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

“Instead of listening to its employees, Google hired (the consultant) IRI Labor Relations, a notoriously anti-union firm, to prevent the organization,” he added. “That’s how Google executives chose to interact with workers.”