More than 4,500 Google employees signed a petition, and the tech giant’s AI arms race triggered a wave of layoffs and rights lawsuits
(Google) Company employees submitted a joint petition to management, strongly demanding that the layoff protection mechanism be improved amid the artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom. This shows that as Silicon Valley giants invest hundreds of millions in the field of artificial intelligence and continue to optimize their human resources structure, the anxiety of underlying technology practitioners regarding employment security is being transformed into large-scale collective rights protection actions. The petition, led by the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), Google’s parent company, has received signatures from more than 4,500 employees. The core demands of the petition include: providing a definite severance package, implementing a voluntary buyout (Buyout) mechanism before compulsory layoffs in all product business lines, and allowing employees to convert severance packages into extended paid leave. In addition, employees also demand the abolition of the current performance appraisal system, accusing it of relying too much on blind business indicators rather than actual work results. As of now, Google officials have not made a public response to this. Parul Koul, chairman of the Alphabet Workers Union and a Google software engineer, pointed out after submitting the petition at the company's California headquarters that Google's current market value has reached US$4 trillion, which has quadrupled in the past six years and is in a period of unprecedented business prosperity. She emphasized that management's recent layoffs and cost-cutting decisions were by no means "tough decisions" as claimed by the company, but rather placed purely on business profits over the interests of employees who keep the company running. Koul confirmed that this joint petition is the largest employee feedback caused by employment security issues in Google’s history. Industry analysts point out that there is a direct structural link between this round of layoffs in Silicon Valley and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. Public financial reports show that Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi has clearly listed artificial intelligence as a "core investment area" and the company is continuing to reorganize resources into this sector. Along with this, Google Cloud (Google Cloud) and the management departments of small and medium-sized teams have implemented hidden layoffs in recent months. Although Google has not publicly acknowledged the role of AI in layoffs, Silicon Valley employees generally face a career substitution crisis brought about by technological changes. Dan Freedman, a Google software engineer, admitted that since AI tools were incorporated into daily workflows, front-line technicians’ anxiety about being replaced by technology has increased significantly. This activist storm is sweeping across the entire U.S. technology industry. Just one day before the Google employee petition, dozens of employees at social media giant Meta formally sued the company, accusing management of using artificial intelligence tools to screen and implement malicious layoffs. The plaintiff employees claimed that Meta used AI tools to intentionally flag and lay off compliant employees who applied for maternity leave or disability benefits. Although a Meta spokesperson issued a statement firmly denying the above-mentioned accusations, saying that there is no factual basis, Meta has laid off about 8,000 employees since the beginning of this year. Market data further supports the structural adjustment of the technology industry. In the past year, (Oracle) has laid off about 21,000 people in total, and bluntly stated in its annual report that the deployment of AI will continue to lead to staff streamlining; Block laid off nearly half of its employees (approximately 4,000 people) earlier this year, and its CEO Jack Dorsey clearly attributed this to the efficiency improvements brought by AI; (Microsoft) also announced this month that it would lay off about 4,800 people, mainly affecting the Xbox game department, in order to concentrate funds on transforming into the field of artificial intelligence. Geopolitical and macroeconomic observers pointed out that in the face of systemic layoff pressure caused by the adjustment of capital expenditure priorities by technology giants, the bottom workers in Silicon Valley are trying to build defense barriers through legal and union negotiations. The Alphabet Workers Union has previously fought for voluntary severance compensation packages for more than 70,000 employees. This joint petition aims to address the core demands that management has long ignored. As the game among major enterprises in the AI application layer becomes increasingly fierce, the resulting labor-capital conflicts and shocks to the social employment structure may further intensify.