4,000 Google cafeteria workers quietly unionized during the pandemic
Source: Washington Post
TECHNOLOGY
4,000 Google cafeteria workers quietly unionized during the pandemic
The tech giant is known for its free lunches for employees. The people who make those lunches have joined unions en masse.
By Gerrit De Vynck and Lauren Kaori Gurley
September 5, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Google is famous for its cafeterias, which serve its legions of programmers and product managers everything from vegan poke to gourmet tacos — free.
But the cooks and servers behind those meals are generally contractors who work for other companies, and do not get the generous perks and benefits reserved for Google employees. So over the past few years, thousands of them have unionized, securing higher wages, retirement benefits and free platinum health care coverage.
Unite Here, a 300,000-member union hotel and food service workers, has been steadily working to unionize Silicon Valley cafeteria workers since 2018, experiencing the most success at Google. Employed by the contract companies Compass and Guckenheimer, those unionized now make up about 90 percent of total food services workers at Google, according to the union. Workers have unionized at 23 Google offices nationwide, including in Seattle and San Jose.
Now, the union is tackling new territory: the South. On Wednesday, Google workers in Atlanta employed by a different cafeteria company — Sodexo — presented their manager with a list of demands and said they plan to unionize.
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By Gerrit De Vynck
Gerrit De Vynck is a tech reporter for The Washington Post. He writes about Google and the algorithms that increasingly shape society. De Vynck also helps lead The Post's coverage of ransomware and misinformation. He previously covered tech for seven years at Bloomberg News. Twitter https://twitter.com/GerritD
By Lauren Gurley
Lauren Kaori Gurley is the labor reporter for The Washington Post. She previously covered labor and tech for Vice's Motherboard. Twitter https://twitter.com/laurenkgurley
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/05/google-union-pandemic/
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Doing it quietly makes it harder for union busting 
