For decades, the technology industry was a fortress that labor unions couldn’t breach. Tech workers already had cushy compensation packages, dream benefits like unlimited vacation and free lunch, and a flat corporate hierarchy that made engineers feel as powerful as their bosses, all of whom dressed down in sneakers and hoodies. So why unionize?
Now, that fortress is cracking from the inside. Unions have become increasingly popular for tech employees. After months of mass layoffs tied to artificial intelligence and mounting anxieties about how it’s being deployed, some tech workers say they’ve been saddled with higher workloads while facing the threat of job loss caused by the very products they’re building. Workers from Google DeepMind and Meta in the UK are also objecting to how their companies’ AI products are being used, such as for military purposes or to monitor employee productivity. Those same workers are now attempting to unionize.
On the frontlines of AI’s rollout in the workplace, tech workers have often been the first to feel its effects – including job loss, employee surveillance, increasing workloads, and uses that conflict with employees’ values. These problems that aren’t unique to software companies, though, and how Silicon Valley workers fare could serve as a bellwether for what’s coming as AI spreads to other industries.
A Meta employee who was part of a recent union drive in the UK said, “It’s about us having a voice in all of the operations of the company, from products to employee experience.” The employee spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from their employer.
After Meta cut thousands of workers in May and piloted a program tracking their activities, some employees felt power had tipped toward their employer. Forming a union, the Meta employee said, “is the best way to actually show up as owners, and take our seat at the table”.
The push toward tech unionization has been building for years and includes workers at crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and Microsoft-owned gaming company ZeniMax, as well as the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), which represents more than 1,400 workers across Google, YouTube and Waymo.
The latest AI-driven developments will drive more organizing efforts, AWU predicts. In the past year, participation in collective actions like AWU’s job security petition, which garnered 4,500 signatures and was delivered to executives last week, increased. Total union actions at Alphabet doubled in 2025 from the year prior.
“In the age of AI, workers need a real say within our companies now more than ever,” said Emma Jackson, senior staff program manager and AWU communications chair. Strong participation “shows workers’ increasing willingness to take a stand and strengthen their agency”.
In a statement, Google DeepMind said it’s in the “early stages” of the process to recognize the union and plans to “continue to engage in good faith”….
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