Google workers to DOJ: we need protections to make your breakup effective

Google employees met with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division last month to share workers’ perspectives ahead of the government’s expected proposal to break up the company. Their message? That as the DOJ attempts to end Google’s search monopoly, any effective remedy must make sure workers are protected and empowered to speak out.

Three members of the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) met virtually with staff from the DOJ Antitrust Division on October 23rd, workers who attended the meeting told The Verge exclusively. During the hour-long conversation, the Google employees urged the government to consider how any remedies imposed by the court could impact workers and to make sure workers are protected and aware of their rights to share compliance concerns without facing retaliation.

The government is considering a range of possible remedies meant to break Google’s stranglehold on the online search market, which Judge Amit Mehta found to be an illegal monopoly. In its initial high-level remedy proposal, it floated spinning out Google’s Chrome browser and Android operating system, alongside less invasive solutions like prohibiting certain contract terms and requiring licensing some of its data. The DOJ is expected to file a more refined version of that remedy proposal on Wednesday.

If Google is broken up, some workers could find their jobs dramatically changed — or gone. But AWU members say the company has discouraged them from raising concerns about the company’s future. The union filed an unfair labor practices charge with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this year, spurred by a top executive asking employees to refrain from speaking about the case “both internally and externally.” (Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels told The Verge that the company was “simply asking that employees not speak about ongoing litigation on behalf of Google without prior approval.”)

“Remedies, whatever they end up being, will fail if workers remain scared of retaliation and are unable to voice concerns,” says Parul Koul, a software engineer at Google and president of the AWU. Alan McAvinney, another Google software engineer and organizing chair for the union, says that over six years at Google, they’ve noticed an increased amount of retaliation.

Given the instructions from Google management and past accusations from former employees, Koul says she’s aware of the “inherent risk to having these conversations and advocating for ourselves.” But in order to improve conditions for workers, Koul says, “we felt it was imperative for us to speak up and make sure that our voices were part of the conversation, even if there’s fear in doing that.”

Koul and McAvinney did not advocate for or against any particular remedy, recognizing there’s likely a range of opinions across such a large workforce. But they want to make sure workers’ voices are part of the discussion. “The fact that, instead of [Google] engaging us in this conversation, what they really told us is, ‘don’t even talk about it,’ that’s really what our issue here is,” Koul says.

Google employees recognize that whatever the DOJ proposes could impact their work, whether it alters their day-to-day or the number of certain job titles that exist, says Koul. “Our approach is really coming out of a sense of, ‘no decisions about us, without us,’” she says.