Workers at Meta are organising with UTAW after attacks on their employment rights, redundancies and shocking violations of privacy against both Meta employees and users of their platforms.
John Chadfield, CWU National Officer for Tech, speaking to BBC Newshour about Google Deepmind.
“When artificial intelligence is developed without any accountability over its direction or purpose, it is bad for society as a whole – not for just the workers involved.”
“These conscientious workers demanding greater say over what they produce with their considerable skills are acting in the tradition of all those who have fought for workers’ rights before them.”
— Dave Ward CWU General Secretary
“I hope that recourse to the statutory procedure will not prove necessary.” CWU official Chadfield wrote in the letter. “We look forward to working with you in a spirit of co-operation on behalf of the workforce.”
The unionisation bid would secure representation on pay, hours, and holidays for at least 1,000 staff tied to Google DeepMind’s London office. The employees’ letter gave management 10 working days to voluntarily recognise the CWU and Unite, or take other steps like agreeing to mediated negotiations, before the matter is escalated to a formal legal process to force recognition.
The British unionisation push is part of a wider campaign. DeepMind employees globally are considering in-person protests and “research strikes”, where they abstain from work expected to significantly improve core products such as the Gemini AI assistant.
Google recently agreed to let the US Department of Defense use its AI models for classified work, a move opposed by over 600 employees. Google staff worry how the technology will be used given the Pentagon imposed restrictions on competitor Anthropic over its refusal to permit use of AI system Claude in fully autonomous deadly weapons or domestic mass surveillance.
“We don’t want our AI models to assist in violations of international law, but they already are aiding Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.” — one DeepMind employee said. “Even if our work is only used for administrative purposes, as leadership has repeatedly told us, it is still helping make genocide cheaper, faster, and more efficient. That must end immediately, as must harm to Iranians and human lives anywhere.”
The unionising DeepMind workers are seeking an end to use of Google AI by Israel and the US military. Their demands also include restoring a scrapped commitment not to make AI weapons or surveillance tools, the creation of an independent ethics oversight body, and the individual right to refuse to contribute to projects on moral grounds.
Google employees have for years protested the ethics of contracts like Project Nimbus, a joint programme with Amazon making cloud computing and AI tools available to Israel, including amid the Gaza genocide. Maven, a US government project from which Google withdrew in 2019 after staff uproar, has reportedly been used in targeting in the Iran war.
