YouTube Music’s contractors have officially unionized with the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA after winning a historic vote through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Forty-one workers voted yes out of a total of 49 eligible voters; the remaining eight workers did not vote.
This choice has significant implications for Google beyond YouTube Music. The union got a great victory in March, when the NLRB ruled that Google is an employer of these workers, even though they are technically employed by a contractor called Cognizant. According to this ruling, Google must negotiate with YouTube Music workers to ratify their union contract.
Since most of Google’s workers are contractors for other companies, this could set a precedent for other divisions to organize as well. Google is trying to challenge this sentence. But if this precedent-setting NLRB ruling stands, then these YouTube Music workers would become the first officially recognized union of tech workers at Google.
Before the union vote, 40 workers They went on strike in February, alleging that both companies took advantage of unfair labor practices to interfere with union organizing.
“Right now, the vast majority of our department is ready to vote yes in an NLRB election,” YouTube Music generalist Sam Regan said at a rally on the first day of the strike. “In an act of retaliation against our organizing efforts, our employer is forcing an end to remote work ahead of the vote, which would drastically interfere with the fair voting conditions required by federal law.”
Employees felt this return-to-office mandate was unfair, since most of them were hired remotely and about a quarter of them are not even based in Texas, where the office is. Cognizant told TechCrunch in February that these workers had been reminded to return to the office since December 2021, and that these positions were accepted with the knowledge that they would not always be remote.
A representative of the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA) said 15 workers who live out of state or cannot get to the office remain on strike as it protects them from voluntary termination. Other workers returned to the office to help organize the new contractors, who had been hired after the strike.
In their quarterly earnings call This week, Alphabet reported an operating income gain of $191 million, which is a significant jump from last year’s loss of $706 million. Also, Google Cloud is turning a profit for the first time, earning $7.4 billion this quarter. Despite this, the company laid off 12,000 people in January and it is $70 billion buyback in stock. According to CNBC, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai made $226 million in total compensation last year.
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