On Tuesday, Amazon announced that it will lay off 14,000 corporate workers, even as the company admitted it’s “performing well” and continues to post record profits.

In reaction, Alphabet Workers Union-CWA Local 9009 issued the following statement:

Today, far too many tech workers woke up wondering, “Am I next?” When corporate giants like Amazon decide to perform extensive layoffs despite reporting massive profits, it quickly spreads fear and uncertainty throughout our entire industry.  

It is indefensible for Amazon to lay off 14,000 workers while simultaneously acknowledging the company is “doing well” – a massive understatement given Amazon posted record profits last year of over $332 billion, a 14% increase year over year.

This is not a responsible business decision; it’s a callous move that puts profits above the livelihood of thousands, throwing their families and communities into deep uncertainty amid an already difficult job market. Amazon justifies mass layoffs with the reasoning of “running leanly,” but we know what that actually looks like: firing knowledgeable workers and degrading the experience for customers and end users.

With Alphabet stock currently at a record high, Google is in a strong financial position. Yet Amazon, which has long been an industry leader in poor working conditions, is now attempting to set a dangerous new precedent for the entire tech sector. But at Google, we won’t let this happen.  

We formed the Alphabet Workers Union in 2021 because we knew that moments of crisis would come to our industry and we needed to get organized to have a real voice in the decisions that affect us. This is why we began the Googlers for Job Security campaign over a year ago, proactively fighting for the job security every tech worker deserves.

And our organizing works: over the summer, Google offered voluntary exit packages (VEPs) to over 60,000 of our coworkers, fulfilling one of our union’s key demands for voluntary buyouts before mandatory layoffs. This is the kind of industry precedent that our profitable tech employers can and should set, not laying off thousands of workers en masse just to squeeze out even further profits. But we can’t just hope corporate executives will do the right thing; it will only happen when we as workers make it happen together.  

We are taking action at Google and organizing to expand the fight for job security and urge all tech workers to join us in this critical moment. Now is the time for us to stand together collectively, so we have power and a real voice in our industry.

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Alphabet Workers Union-CWA Local 9009 is a union of Alphabet workers in the U.S. and Canada, including full-time employees, temps, vendors, and contractors. For more information, please visit our website, www.alphabetworkersunion.org; Twitter, @alphabetworkers; Facebook, AlphabetWorkers; Bluesky, alphabetworkersunion.org; LinkedIn, Alphabet Workers Union; or Instagram, @alphabetworkers