(San Francisco, CA)—A supermajority of Google Help workers with Accenture, a Google contractor, have filed for a union election today with Alphabet Workers Union-CWA (AWU-CWA). Currently 70% of the eligible 119 workers have signed union authorization cards. If victorious, workers are set to become AWU-CWA’s third ever bargaining unit. The union is composed of writers & graphic designers who create internal and external Google content, including materials for Google Help support pages. Workers have listed both Google and Accenture as joint employers due to the direct role both companies play in shaping working conditions. 

Workers hope to achieve the following key demands and more: 

• Increased Paid Time Off. Currently workers accrue 15 days PTO annually, but Google mandates 13 unpaid holidays. The current 2 days a year for vacation or sickness is grossly inadequate.
• Competitive pay that appropriately reflects the highly skilled nature of their work.
• Assurance that team members will not be randomly assigned to projects outside the scope of their workflows.
  

“My coworkers and I are so excited to be securing a protected voice on the job to bring both Google and Accenture to the negotiating table. We’re the workers who create the Google Help pages that ensure users around the globe can find the answers they need. We’re critical to Google’s success, but for too long our skills and contributions have not been recognized. Through unionizing we hope to secure better working conditions that will allow us to do our jobs more effectively,” said Tahlia Kirk, Writing Team Trainer and member of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA. 

Many workers were unceremoniously transferred overnight to work on Bard as Google entered the AI race. Workers were thrown into the fray without adequate resources to navigate obscene content that appeared irregularly. Then after several weeks, they were abruptly taken off the project. This disruption was a motivator in workers’ decision to organize. Because they answer to both Accenture and Google, workers lack job security and clarity around their current and future responsibilities. To avoid similar discrepancies in the future, workers have listed both Google and Accenture as joint employers in their election filing with the National Labor Relations Board.  

As part of Google’s extended workforce, workers are employed through Accenture, a major contracting company for Google. Workers are hired for “temporary” positions but have maintained their work for years. This multi-layered system creates a lack of transparency about their working conditions at Google. 

As Accenture workers, dozens of these workers were originally hired through yet another layer of indirect employer: subcontracting for a subcontractor. Workers were employed by Artech, hired by Accenture, hired by Google. In June 2022, nearly a dozen workers won tens of thousands of dollars in back pay owed to them by Artech, a subcontractor of Accenture. Workers discovered a discrepancy between their pay stubs and the amount designated by Accenture to be paid directly to Artech employees. Workers were losing $5 to $10 dollars an hour, resulting in thousands of dollars of unpaid back pay. Many of these workers are a part of the current unit at Accenture having transitioned from Artech to Accenture. 

“I love my job, and I love my team. We want nothing more than to be able to do our best work, but we are treated like second-class citizens even though our product is vital to Google’s success. That is why I am proud to stand with my coworkers as we organize to win better job stability, transparency, and working conditions,” said Casey Padron, General Writer and member of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA. 

On April 26, 2023 a group of YouTube Music workers voted to unionize with Alphabet Workers Union-CWA as the union’s second bargaining unit. Previously the regional NLRB office had ruled that both Google and the subcontractor Cognizant were joint employers of the workers. Workers await a decision from the NLRB regarding Alphabet’s appeal. 

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