YouTube Music workers went on strike as both Alphabet and subcontractor Cognizant are accused of leveraging unfair labor practices as they conducted the union drive. This is the first time a group of workers from Google has gone on strike.
Subcontracted YouTube Music workers employed by Alphabets outsourcing partner Cognizant strike outside Google's office in Austin, Texas, on February 3, 2023. - The workers went on strike because of what they say are unfair labor practices. SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images
(Photo : SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images) Subcontracted YouTube Music workers employed by Alphabets outsourcing partner Cognizant strike outside Google's office in Austin, Texas, on February 3, 2023. - The workers went on strike because of what they say are unfair labor practices.
YouTube Music Strike
A group of 40 workers from YouTube Music in Austin, Texas strike this Friday. Based on a report from TechCrunch, these employees were all employed by Alphabet subcontractor Cognizant, which was accused of unfair labor practices.
YouTube Music Generalist Sam Regan stated via Facebook live stream that the majority of the department is set to vote yes in a National Labor Relations Board election. "Our employer is forcing an end to remote work before the vote, which would dramatically interfere with the fair voting conditions mandated by federal law," he added.
According to Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), the content operations team is expected to comply with the return-to-office policy (RTO) on February 6th. However, these employees were hired remotely, and some of them are not even based in Texas.
Workers are only paid $19 per hour. Through this wage, AWU stated that workers will not afford the relocation, travel, and health care costs associated with every employee in the company. Additionally, managers were also accused of sending workers to other offices to tone down the union efforts.
As a response after being informed of the workers' strike, Time reported that Cognizant and Alphabet offered workers the option to work from home for an additional two weeks. But they can only take this on the condition to quit Cognizant's work for YouTube, which was made to discourage employees from engaging in any protected concerted activity.
A Google Software Engineer spoke out regarding this issue as a support for the striking workers, "The layoffs showed we are just entries in a spreadsheet to Google executives. This isn't the Google I thought I joined. This strike is what I joined Google for. Thank you."
Engadget reported that Alphabet and Cognizant only announced the RTO police after workers voted to unionize. But Cognizant clarified that these plans have been in place and communicated with the employees since December 2021.
The statement added, "Associates working on this project accepted their employment with the understanding that they were accepting in-office positions, and that the team would work together at a physical location based in Austin."
Employees appealed to the NLRB to be recognized as "jointly employed" by both Cognizant and Alphabet, which would force the company to negotiate as per United States Labor Laws. The strike began at noon (EST) today outside of the Google office in Austin, Texas.
