Return to office remains a contentious issue in Silicon Valley and a group of Google contractors are pushing back.
Google Maps contractors were told they had to return to office on June 6, but received a 90-day extension three hours after telling management they were going on strike, according to a tweet Thursday by the Alphabet Workers Union. The 200-plus contractors, working for IT consulting company Cognizant Technology Solutions, say that the current return to office demands by Google are unsafe, according to the AWU.
BREAKING:Google Maps Worker Victory!
Today, the Google Maps contract workers informed management that they planned to go on strike due to the unsafe working conditions imposed by the 6/6 RTO date.
In less than 3hrs workers won a 90 day extension—this is the power of organizing.
— Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA) (@AlphabetWorkers) June 2, 2022
Google, Cognizant and the AWU didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The contractors, who are paid between $16-28 an hour, were attempting to negotiate with management on flexible RTO plans but were being ignored, according to the AWU. A petition, signed by 60% of workers, demanded that managers suspend the five-day RTO demand until travel costs, health and child care concerns were addressed, according to a report form The New York Times last month. Google employees have been told to come into work three days a week by comparison. Contractors cited high fuel costs as many live further away due to the high cost of housing in Bothell, Washington, a city 20 miles north of Seattle.
The differing RTO demands between full-time workers and contractors show the imbalance between the company’s workforce. Contractors make up more than half of Google’s 200-thousand-plus workforce, according to a 2019 New York Times report.
Return to office demands highlight the push-pull between capital and labor in Silicon Valley. Apple has pushed its RTO plans back due to rising Covid-19 cases and have proposed a three-day in-office schedule. Meta, parent to Facebook, has given employees greater flexibility to work from home, potentially as a means of preventing people from leaving the company. Elon Musk has reportedly told Tesla employees that remote work is over and that workers must be in office a minimum of 40-hours per week.