Over 4,500 Google workers have signed a petition calling for layoff protections in response to tech giant workforce cuts over the past few months. According to The Guardian, the union-led petition calls for guaranteed severance, buyouts before mandatory layoffs, and the option to take severance as extended paid leave.
Employees reportedly chanted “Google, Google, you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side” at a Thursday press conference. The workers referenced Google parent company Alphabet’s mass layoffs in 2023, while reports indicate the company has been quietly laying off staff in certain divisions this year.
After delivering the petition to the office of CEO Sundar Pichai, Parul Koul, the president of the Alphabet Workers Union, said: “This is a company enjoying massive, unprecedented success… these layoffs and cuts are not difficult decisions, but simply profit being put over the people that make this company run.”
The petition was left with a staff member at Pichai’s office, and Koul states that the workers were “greeted with closed doors and no response for the most part.” However, the staff member said they would deliver it to the Google and Alphabet chief, and that it was “the largest piece of employee feedback that Google had received about job security.”