On Tuesday, February 10, Google once again expanded their Voluntary Exit Packages (VEPs), this time offering VEPs to workers in the Global Business & Operations product area (PA) for the first time and to workers in the Platforms & Devices PA for a second time.

In response, the Executive Board of the Alphabet Workers Union released the following statement:

“The latest round of VEPs offered at Google makes one thing clear: organizing works. While peer tech companies like Amazon have been performing rounds of mass layoffs since last fall, Google has once again chosen a different path forward that gives workers greater autonomy. Voluntary buyouts before layoffs are one of the four key demands of the Googlers for Job Security petition signed by over 2,800 of our coworkers.

A little over a year ago, in January 2025, the first VEPs were offered in Platforms & Devices after the Googlers for Job Security campaign became public. Throughout 2025, as our movement for job security continued to grow, Alphabet continued to expand this program, with CEO Sundar Pichai even acknowledging that VEPs came about as a result of ‘listening to employees.’ Now, as the program expands into 2026, a demand that resulted from deep, intentional conversations between coworkers has become a de facto company policy at Google.

However, the fight continues. This program has not always been implemented evenly: a round of VEPs offered in Platforms & Devices last year still resulted in a smaller round of mandatory layoffs. Google’s performance review process – GRAD – has been filled with uncertainty and fear, renewing our call for no GRAD quotas. Our immigrant coworkers are navigating a hostile environment under Trump, underscoring the importance of allowing workers to take severance as leave to extend their time on the payroll to find a new job in the U.S.

On February 4, Sundar Pichai announced on his Q4 earnings call that ‘Alphabet annual revenues exceeded $400 hundred billion for the first time.’ This tremendous growth is a result of the hard work of hundreds of thousands of talented workers. We, the diverse, global workforce of Alphabet, know that we are the company’s greatest asset – and we deserve the job security that will allow us to do our best work. We call on all Googlers to sign our petition and join our movement for guaranteed severance, voluntary buyouts before mandatory layoffs, no GRAD quotas, and severance as leave.”

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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