Google employee protest
Google employees staged a walkout in 2018.
Stephen Lam/Reuters
  • Google employees are praising the announcement Monday that more than 200 Google workers have formed a union. 
  • The Alphabet Workers Union will be open to all 120,000 Alphabet employees in the US and Canada, and is intended to promote inclusivity and ethics at Google. 
  • Employees have taken to Twitter to explain their motivations for joining the organizing effort, with one software engineer describing AWU as “a long time coming.” 
  • Raksha Muthukumar, a software engineer at Google, tweeted that the union came together because “it’s time for tech workers to stand together & say we won’t prop up a world made for the wealthy, the privileged, the white, the male, the heteronormative.”
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Google employees are applauding the announcement Monday that more than 200 workers from the Silicon Valley tech giant have formed a union. 

The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), named for Google’s parent company, is the first of its kind at Google and is a rare organizing effort for employees at a major tech company. The union, which currently has 226 members, will be open to all 120,000 Alphabet employees in the US and Canada, and is intended to promote inclusivity and ethics at Google rather than organizing around a list of demands. 

AWU says it has been in the works for more than a year and was formed as a result of issues dating back as far as 2011, when Google instituted a “real names only” policy on its now-defunct social network, Google Plus.

In the years since, Google employees have publicly criticized the company over issues like Project Dragonfly, a censored search engine Google was designing for the Chinese market; and Project Maven, which worked with the Department of Defense to provide artificial intelligence tools. And beginning in 2018, multiple sexual harassment allegations rocked the company, leading to a global walkout of more than 20,000 employees. 

The organizers also noted turmoil surrounding the firing of artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru, an incident that left Googlers “seriously pissed,” one employee told Business Insider’s Hugh Langley. 

Read more: Google employees sent a letter demanding leadership changes and a stronger commitment to 'academic integrity,' as tensions over AI ethicist's exit continue to rise

In the wake of AWU's announcement, Google employees across the country are cheering the organizing effort, which software engineer Christopher Schmidt described as "a long time coming." 

Google software engineer Andrew Gainer-Dewar tweeted that "tech workers need unions."

Raksha Muthukumar, a software engineer at Google, tweeted that the union came together because "it's time for tech workers to stand together & say we won't prop up a world made for the wealthy, the privileged, the white, the male, the heteronormative."

Software engineer Eric Lewis posted a selfie with the union logo, a hand holding a lollipop, writing that a union will make it safe for employees to have a say in their work. 

Alex Hanna, a research scientist at Google, tweeted that workers can't rely on "the good graces of tech leaders" to do right by them or society.

Auni Ahsan, who serves on the union's executive council, wrote that participating in the Google walkout in 2018 opened their eyes to the power of organizing. 

The new union was also praised by former Googler Meredith Whittaker. Whittaker was one of the organizers of the walkout and was outspoken about the company's short-lived AI ethics board. Whittaker said she experienced retaliation from the company that prompted her departure in 2019.

In a tweet on Monday, Whittaker described the union as "an incredible next step in building worker power." Nicki Anselmo, a program manager for Google Students, praised Whittaker and said the union's organizers are "standing on the shoulders of giants." 

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