Hundreds of workers at Google and other Alphabet companies have created the Alphabet Workers Union, with help from the Communications Workers of America, one of the largest communications and media labour unions in the U.S. Both full-time employees and contractors will be eligible to join the new union. (The Logic, CNN)

Talking point: The successful unionization attempt by Alphabet employees is uncommon in Silicon Valley, where tech giants have repeatedly pushed back against worker activism. In November 2019, Google hired an anti-union consulting firm, IRI Consultants, to crack down on dissent, after employees accused their management of developing an internal surveillance tool to monitor attempts to unionize. “We will elect representatives, we will make decisions democratically, we will pay dues and we will hire skilled organizers to ensure all workers at Google know they can work with us if they actually want to see their company reflect their values,” said Dylan Baker, a software engineer, in the statement. The new union is unlike a traditional union, in that there is no direct collective-bargaining process for a contract between management and the company’s 260,000-plus employees and contractors. Instead, it is a minority union formed by around 225 workers in an effort to give “sustainable structure” to worker activism at Google.