A YouTube contractor addressed the Austin City Council on Thursday, urging him to pressure Google into negotiations with its union when a colleague interrupted him with stunning news: His 43-person contractor team had all been laid off.
“I was speechless, shocked. I didn’t know what to do,” Jack Benedict, a YouTube data analyst who spoke to the city council, told The Washington Post. “But upset, that was the main feeling.”
The council meeting was broadcast live online and has since been shared on social media. The contractors view the layoff as retaliation for unionization, but Google and IT subcontractor Cognizant said it was the normal end of a business contract. The possibility of layoffs spreading through social media highlights how often the painful experience of job loss is made public, from employees sharing recordings of Zoom meetings to posts about their unemployment.
The rising tensions between YouTube and Google contractors come as mass layoffs continue in the tech industry – unsettling workers and emboldening companies. Google has already made cuts in the last two years.
Big Tech isn't done with layoffs yet, as Google and Amazon announce cuts for 2024
Google has long been at odds with many of its contractors, who want to receive the benefits and high wages that full-time Google employees are accustomed to. The company employs tens of thousands of contractors who do everything from catering to sales to writing code.
YouTube workers working for Google and Cognizant voted unanimously to unionize into the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA in April 2023. Since then, workers say Google has refused to negotiate with them. Thursday's firing is a sign of ongoing tensions between Google and its workers, some of whom formed a union in 2021.
Google claims that Cognizant is responsible for the employment and working conditions of contractors and is therefore not responsible for negotiating with them. Cognizant said it is offering employees seven weeks of paid time to explore other roles in the company and take advantage of training resources.
Last year, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Cognizant and Google are joint employers of the contractors. In January, the NLRB sent a cease-and-desist letter to both employers for failing to negotiate with the union. Since then, the question of joint employment has arisen, which would ultimately decide which company is responsible for negotiations, has ended up in an appeals court and has yet to be decided. The Alphabet Workers Union said Google never negotiated with either of its two bargaining units. Google said it was not responsible for negotiating with the union by Cognizant employees.
“We have no objection to these Cognizant employees’ decision to form a union,” said Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokeswoman. “We simply believe that it is only appropriate for Cognizant as an employer to engage in collective bargaining.”
Cognizant did not comment on the workers' claim that it refused to negotiate with the union, but issued the following statement: “While we respect our employees' right to unionize, our philosophy is that we do so through direct, “Open dialogue and collaboration work best together,” said Cognizant spokesman Bill Abelson.
The team responsible for ensuring music content is available and approved for YouTube Music's 80 million subscribers has unionized to fight for better pay and benefits. Workers say they receive no sick pay, minimal benefits and are paid just $19 an hour, forcing some to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
Workers took part in two strikes: a month-long walkout in February 2023 over Cognizant's return policy, which led to the departure of about 20 percent of the team, and a one-day strike break in September over Google and Cognizant's refusal to negotiate. After the strikes, workers were asked to train agents in India on how to do their jobs so they could fill in during holidays or if the workers ever went on strike, Benedict said.
Benedict expected Thursday to be a victorious moment as the council was expected to vote for a resolution supporting workers. Instead, workers were told by the council ten minutes before the meeting that the vote would be postponed but they would still be allowed to speak. During the speech, the team working in the office was called into a meeting and told that they no longer had jobs. They texted workers at the council meeting to let them know.
“I don’t think they could have delivered the news at a worse time,” Benedict said. “Things are looking really bad for them.”
Sam Regan, a data analyst for YouTube Music, was in the office when the firing occurred. The mood was suspicious, he said, as security guards attended a brief morning meeting attended by company executives “cold” informed the workers that their project would be cut. Workers had about 20 minutes to collect their belongings and leave the site before they were deemed to be trespassing.
Regan said he was one of the last to leave. As he left, he heard one of the security guards calling the police emergency number to report intruders.
“It was really bad,” he said. “It was just one of the most dehumanizing experiences of my life.”
The workers say they are shocked but plan to keep fighting.
“The [city council video] The clip is circulating everywhere and we are seeing a lot of traction,” Benedict said. “We’re not just going to sit back and let them do that.”