More than 1,300 Google workers petition for job security amid layoffs

Amid increasing tech layoffs across leading companies, a mass of Google workers have launched a new campaign to push for job security at the Bay Area giant.

More than 1,300 Google employees have signed a “Googlers for Job Security” petition circulated by the Alphabet Workers Union. Addressing billionaire CEO Sundar Pichai by his first name, the letter underlines the impacts of layoffs’ on worker morale. It further calls on Google to offer voluntary buyouts before laying people off and assure a minimum level of severance benefits.

“We, the undersigned Google workers from offices across the US and Canada, are concerned about instability at Google that impacts our ability to do high quality, impactful work,” the petition reads. “Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs. The company is clearly in a strong financial position, making the loss of so many valuable colleagues without explanation hurt even more.”

Olivia Asemota, a Google software engineer and the vice president of the Alphabet Workers Union, said that the petition was decided after workers brought up layoff protections and job security during union-held forums.

“A lot of folks have been feeling really anxious and worried about what was to come,” Asemota told SFGATE, adding, “especially given the nature of how the layoffs happened in the last two years, where they just came out of the blue.”

In the petition, workers advised that both buyouts and layoffs should include severance packages equal to those offered during Google’s massive January 2023 layoffs. In 2023, the tech giant laid off more than 12,000 employees with a severance package of 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional year employees worked at the company.

Since then, Google has made more rounds of layoffs throughout its various departments.

Last October, new Google CFO Anat Ashkenazi said one of her leading priorities would be to drive more cost cutting as the tech giant develops its artificial intelligence infrastructure in 2025. Her comments resulted in unprecedented reactions from the employees. 

“Any organization can always push a little further and I’ll be looking at additional opportunities,” she said, referring to cost cutting.

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