Downward Angle Symbol A symbol in the form of an angle pointing downwards. Google fired the YouTube Music team on Friday. The Alphabet Workers Union said its members were paid just $19 an hour. Getty Images
- The entire YouTube Music team is out of work following last year's strike.
- Some of the workers rallied to support their union at an Austin City Council meeting.
- A Google spokesman said the move was a regular contract termination.
The entire YouTube Music team is out of work as tensions rise at Google parent company Alphabet.
The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents employees of Google parent company Alphabet, said Google fired the YouTube Music team on Friday.
Some of the Alphabet workers learned of the layoffs while speaking at a meeting of the Austin City Council in Texas, where the city council was set to vote on a resolution calling on the company to negotiate with the union.
“We were just laid off, our jobs end today, effective immediately,” a worker tells the city council in the video of the meeting.
In a statement on
“Even as workers contribute to the success of the billion-dollar platform, they receive only $19 an hour and minimal benefits,” the union said.
The YouTube Music team went on strike back in February 2023 over Google's crackdown on remote work.
Google has publicly refused to negotiate with the Alphabet union since workers voted to unionize in April 2023, the union says.
Cognizant, a professional services firm through which Alphabet contracted the YouTube Music team, said in a statement that the workers were laid off after their contract ended on the scheduled date, according to KXAN in Austin.
The company said workers would receive seven weeks of paid time to “explore other roles within the organization,” according to the outlet.
A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that Cognizant, not Google, was responsible for terminating the employees' employment.
“Contracts with our suppliers across the company routinely expire on their natural expiration date agreed with Cognizant,” the company said in a statement.
Cognizant did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on Saturday.
The firings come as Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai faces calls to resign. Pichai and Google are feeling growing competitive pressure from new innovations in artificial intelligence, compounded by the company's recent failures in AI, BI previously reported.
Google recently shut down its AI image generator Gemini after it produced inaccurate photos in the past.
On February 28, Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, along with 31 other media companies, filed a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Google in a Dutch court, alleging that the company's advertising practices suffered losses.