Employee uprisings

In the beginning of January, 400 Google employees around the world banded together to create a new union called Alpha Global. It follows a move made by workers in the US and Canada, who launched the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) a few weeks prior. The union says it aims to promote inclusivity, push for more transparency for employees, and ensure Alphabet acts ethically.

“Our new union provides a sustainable structure to ensure that our shared values as Alphabet employees are respected even after the headlines fade,” Google employee Nicki Anselmo said in a statement issued by the Alphabet Workers Union. Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw, the executive chair and the vice chair of the Alphabet Workers Union, echoed this sentiment in a January 2021 op-ed for the New York Times: “We built Google. This is not the company we want to work for,” they wrote. “Our company’s motto used to be “Don’t be evil.” An organized work force will help us live up to it.”

Other tech giants are facing similar backlash from employees. Next month, Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama will see over 5,000 workers vote to unionize after warehouse employees contacted a member of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union last summer. According to the New York Times, employees took a stand after raising concerns with the company tracking their productivity.

In January 2021, Donald Trump’s Facebook account was suspended “indefinitely.” The company faced scrutiny from employees back in June 2020 after executives refused to remove Trump’s provocative posts relating to Black Lives Matter protests. Employees felt the posts condoned racially charged violence, while Facebook deemed them informative and therefore not against company policy. Hundreds of staff members channelled their anger into a virtual protest, calling on CEO Mark Zuckerberg to take action.