Google employees across the world are uniting to form an international union alliance. This formation of a union alliance on a global scale has come just weeks after the Google workers formed their first-ever labor union – Alphabet Workers Union – a labor union for U.S. and Canadian offices.
UNI Global Union revealed, on Monday, January 25, the formation of Alpha Global – an international union alliance named after Google’s parent company Alphabet. The newly forged global alliance includes unions from 10 different countries, including the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK.
In a joint statement, the alliance said, “[Google] is a place where many workers came to change the world—to make it more democratic—only to find Google suppressing speech and cracking down on worker organizing while consolidating monopolistic power.”
Alpha Global was formed in coordination with UNI Global Union, a federation of labor unions representing 20 million skills and services workers across the world, including employees at Amazon.
“The problems at Alphabet — and created by Alphabet — are not limited to any one country, and must be addressed on a global level,” said UNI’s general secretary Christy Hoffman. “The movement launched by tech workers at Google and beyond is inspiring. They are using their collective muscle to not only transform their conditions of employment but also to address social issues caused by increasing concentration of corporate power.”
Alpha Global said their unions are committed to creating a common strategy and supporting each other, working together to build local organizations that reflect the values and interest of the employees, fighting for the rights of Alphabet employees including temporary workers and contractors, and calling on other trade unions to support their movement.
“We know that organizing for justice at a global company like Alphabet does not stop at national boundaries,” said Parul Koul, executive chair of the Alphabet Workers Union and a Google software engineer. “That is why it is so important to unite with workers in other countries. In a world where inequality is tearing apart, our societies and corporations are hoarding more influence than ever, reclaiming our power through our unions has never been more important.”
Alpha Global organizers said they intend to tackle national and international issues like the treatment of content moderators in certain countries and workers forced to sign nondisclosure agreements.
So far, unions from the United States, Switzerland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Belgium have joined the international alliance.
Image: Pixabay
