Thousands of Google workers demand layoff protections amid AI boom in petition to CEO

Google workers on Thursday delivered a petition calling for layoff protections as tech giants continue to slash their workforces while pouring billions into AI.

“Make no mistake: this is a company that is enjoying massive, unprecedented success,” Parul Koul, Google software engineer and Alphabet Workers Union president, said outside the company’s California headquarters after delivering the petition to CEO Sundar Pichai’s office. Koul pointed to Google’s $4tn valuation, which has quadrupled over the last six years: “These layoffs and cuts are not difficult decisions, but simply profit being put over the people that make this company run.”

The petition, which was led by the union and includes more than 4,500 signatures, calls for guaranteed severance, buyouts before mandatory layoffs in all product areas and the option to take severance as extended paid leave. Union members are also asking to end performance ratings they say are based on achieving quotas rather than merit.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Upon delivering the petition, workers were “greeted with closed doors and no response for the most part”, Koul said. They left the petition with a staff member in Pichai’s office, who committed to delivering it to the CEO, she added. “This petition is the largest piece of employee feedback that Google has received about job security,” she said.

At Thursday’s press conference, workers called out Alphabet’s mass layoffs in 2023, which drew shouts of “shame” from the crowd. Workers also chanted: “Google, Google you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side.”

The petition comes as big tech companies thin their ranks, with some explicitly citing AI as a reason.

Google has been cutting its workforce in recent months as it ramps up its AI spend. Google Cloud quietly laid off some employees about two months ago, according to Business Insider. And last summer, the company eliminated more than one-third of its managers overseeing small teams, according to an audio recording obtained by CNBC. In the company’s latest earnings call, Anat Ashkenazi ,Alphabet’s chief financial officer, called AI a “key investment area”, in which the company plans to continue hiring and boost marketing support.

Google did not comment on whether AI has played a role in its layoffs, but the CEO of the company’s DeepMind division previously told Wired that companies trying to replace developers with AI “have a lack of imagination”.

Employees across Silicon Valley are attempting to shield themselves from the effects of the AI boom, whether in their companies’ hiring and firing or spending. The day before the petition went public, dozens of Meta employees sued the social media giant for allegedly using artificial intelligence tools to tag workers for mass layoffs. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, conducted a workforce reduction of about 8,000 employees earlier this year. The workers allege that those AI tools targeted them after they asked for protected or maternity leave or disability accommodation.

Meta disputed the allegations; a spokesperson wrote in a statement, “These claims lack merit and are not based on facts.”

Meanwhile, Oracle laid off about 21,000 employees over the last year, and suggested in its latest annual report the adoption and deployment of AI “may continue to result in reductions to our workforce”. Block laid off almost half of its workforce – roughly 4,000 employees – earlier this year, with CEO Jack Dorsey citing efficiency gains due to AI. This month, Microsoft announced plans to cut about 2.1% of its workforce – about 4,800 jobs, mostly in its Xbox gaming division – as it invests in AI.

Thursday’s petition builds on the Alphabet union campaign that has already secured at least one victory: voluntary exit packages for more than 70,000 workers. The petition aims to address unmet demands. This isn’t the first time workers have tried to convey them to executives, Koul said.

“We’ve organized actions mobilizing hundreds of Googlers around the country to raise visibility and attention to these concerns and despite this, Google management has chosen to ignore us,” she said. “This is why we gathered here in person today.”

Dan Freedman, Google software engineer and Alphabet union member who works on AI tools for designers, was among several employees at the press conference who raised concerns about AI’s impact on workers’ jobs. After AI was added to his job requirements, he feared he wasn’t using it enough and that it could replace him. He recoils with anxiety when he hears about layoffs at the company. “I have to wonder if I’m next,” he said.