Google Korea workers have formed a union this week with the\u00a0Korea Finance & Service Workers Union\u00a0(KFSWU). The union held its first general meeting on 11 April, where it elected its leadership.<\/p>\r\n
The push to organize began after Google\u2019s parent company Alphabet announced a 6 per cent cut to its global workforce, or around 12,000 employees, in January. In early March, Google Korea notified employees about layoffs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
KIM Jong-sub, who was elected president of the Google Korea Workers Union, said, “As the wind of layoffs continues to sweep the U.S. IT industry, employees who are feeling the pain of unilateral dismissals and continuous job insecurity have been sparked into action, and since last month, we have been working hard to establish our union.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
The union notes that Google Korea has been called a \u201cdream workplace\u201d for years, but like other big tech companies \u2014 Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta \u2014 the dream is over.<\/p>\r\n
The union plans to organize hundreds of workers at Google Korea and Google Cloud Korea to protect labour rights at the company.\u00a0The KFSWU already has\u00a0members\u00a0at\u00a0Oracle, Hewlett Packard, SAP, and Microsoft Korea.\u00a0Google Korea workers union will be the\u00a0fifth multinational\u00a0IT or tech\u00a0corporation\u00a0organized in Korea.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cWe welcome Google Korea workers to the union family and congratulate them on taking this step,\u201d said Rajendra Acharya, Regional Secretary of UNI Asia & Pacific<\/strong>. \u201cGoogle workers throughout Asia \u2013 and throughout the world \u2013 are organizing because they want a voice, and they want to put an end to this ongoing precarity. We stand with them.\u201d<\/p>\r\n UNI Global Union is helping Google worker unions coordinate demands and actions across national borders.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Google Korea workers have formed a union this week with the\u00a0Korea Finance & Service Workers Union\u00a0(KFSWU). The union held its first general meeting on 11 April, where it elected its leadership. The push to organize began after Google\u2019s parent company Alphabet announced a 6 per cent cut to its global workforce, or around 12,000 employees,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":10135,"template":"","categories":[],"global-issues":[],"sectors":[12],"cross-sector-groups":[],"workers-rights":[],"regions":[85],"topics":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n