The New York Times kirjutab 4. jaanuaril kahes artiklis sellest, et peale aastate pikkust aktivismi formeerusid sajad Google töötajad ametiühinguks.

Väljavõtted artiklist We Built Google. This Is Not the Company We Want to Work For:

To those who are skeptical of unions or believe that tech companies are more innovative without unions, we want to point out that these and other larger problems persist.

Each time workers organize to demand change, Alphabet’s executives make token promises, doing the bare minimum in the hopes of placating workers.

It’s not enough. Today, we’re building on years of organizing efforts at Google to create a formal structure for workers.

We are the workers who built Alphabet (Google’s parent company). We write code, clean offices, serve food, drive buses, test self-driving cars and do everything needed to keep this behemoth running. We joined Alphabet because we wanted to build technology that improves the world. Yet time and again, company leaders have put profits ahead of our concerns. We are joining together — temps, vendors, contractors, and full-time employees — to create a unified worker voice. We want Alphabet to be a company where workers have a meaningful say in decisions that affect us and the societies we live in. 

Väljavõtted artiklist Hundreds of Google Employees Unionize, Culminating Years of Activism:

Chewy Shaw, an engineer at Google in the San Francisco Bay Area and the vice chair of the union’s leadership council, said the union was a necessary tool to sustain pressure on management so that workers could force changes on workplace issues.

“Our goals go beyond the workplace questions of ‘Are people getting paid enough?’ Our issues are going much broader,” he said. “It is a time where a union is an answer to these problems.”

In response, Kara Silverstein, Google’s director of people operations, said: “We’ve always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our work force. Of course, our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees.”

Siinkohal saab paralleele tuua Eesti teadus- ja kõrgharidusmaastikuga:

• Teadlased ja õppejõud töötavad missioonitundega ja tahavad, et ülikool, mida nad armastavad oleks nende nägu, mitte et ülikool kirjutaks ette, mis nägu peab teadlane olema.
• Levinud skepsis, kas ametiühing ennast sellises eripärases sektoris ikka õigustab.
• Kirjeldatud skepsist jagavad sageli ka juhtkonnad, kes on seisukohal, et töötajad on juba niigi kaasatud ja kaitstud läbi erinevate mehhanismide.
• Aktivistide usk sellesse, et eelkõige ametiühinguliikumine võiks tuua soovitud muutuse.