Today, Alphabet announced it will offer voluntary exit packages (VEPs) to Googlers across multiple product areas (PAs), including Knowledge & Information, Core, Global Communications & Public Affairs, Marketing, Finance, and Research, while also mandating that many fully remote employees within 50 miles of a Google office return to a hybrid schedule. In response, the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) released the following statement:

Six months ago, Google workers launched the Googlers For Job Security campaign, demanding:

• Guaranteed 2023 severance match: Every laid off worker must receive a guaranteed minimum severance package equal to the packages offered in January 2023.  
• Buyouts before layoffs: Voluntary layoffs must be offered before performing involuntary layoffs. Buyouts must offer at least the guaranteed severance package.  
• No GRAD quotas: Ratings must be given based on performance and cannot be given or changed to achieve a forced distribution.

Since January, thousands of us have raised our voices for real job security, signing a public petition, organizing national days of action, and wearing campaign shirts in solidarity. Today, we won one of our most important demands: as a direct result of our Googlers For Job Security campaign, Google has vastly expanded their use of VEPs across the company. We, the workers, are ensuring that this key demand becomes a default practice at Google, rather than an exception to the rule of mass layoffs.

This is a direct result of worker organizing. Since we launched our campaign, over 40,000 Google workers have been offered VEPs. While peer companies like Meta and Microsoft continue to conduct mass layoffs without warning, Google workers have secured a more dignified alternative through the power of our union.

Yet while we celebrate this step forward, we are as committed as ever to the fight for a Google where every worker has a say. Today’s announcement still does not meet our full demand for requiring VEPs prior to any layoffs taking place. Google’s top-down return-to-office (RTO) mandate upends thousands of lives without input from remote workers, their teams, or even managers. Decisions about our work should not be made without us.  

Google runs because we make it run, generating $350 billion in revenue and $100 billion in profit in 2024 alone. If the company truly values its workforce, it must respect our voices in shaping policies that affect our jobs, families, and futures.

Today’s announcement makes it clear that the only path to real change at work is through our collective action. Join us in building a stronger union and a workplace where every Googler has a say.