Chris Schmidt, a Google Software Engineer and Organizer with the Alphabet Workers Union, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the efforts of about 1,000 Google employees to organize a union in order to give workers a voice and to address concerns to management.
The Alphabet Workers Union is a solidarity union representing full-time employees, temporary employees, vendors and contractors at Google. Alphabet is the parent company of Google.
A solidarity union does not seek exclusive representation rights over the workplace through an election facilitated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), but instead coordinates collective action on behalf of workers.
Schmidt discussed the history of the Alphabet Workers Union and reactions from Google management. He talked about corporate changes at Google that made the formation of the Union necessary and how Google has largely failed to address worker demands.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.