- 300 employees of Google DeepMind seek to join the CWU.
- Concerns about AI’s use in military applications.
- Big tech’s role in Gaza and other conflicts.
After Google dropped its pledge in February this year not to develop AI technologies that cause “or are likely to cause overall harm,” UK employees have sought to join the Communication Workers Union, in the last few weeks, according to anonymous sources reported in the Financial Times [paywall].
The FT states that media reports about Project Nimbus have “caused disquiet” among workers, with one quoted as saying, “People feel duped.” Project Nimbus is an agreement between the Israeli Ministry of Defence, Google, and Amazon for cloud computing services.
Process of unionisation for Google DeepMind
In the UK, union representation can be given to a ‘bargaining unit’, which comprises of a group of employees. If an employer refuses to acknowledge the unionisation of a bargaining unit, the union in question can apply to the Central Arbitration Committee under the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992. Workers are then balloted, with a majority of votes cast by at least 40% of all workers in the bargaining unit.
The statutory process then compels employers to engage in ‘good faith negotiations’ with the union on matters around pay, hours, leave entitlement, and ‘other working conditions’. The latter is likely to encompass concerns that staff at DeepMind may about their work being deployed for military purposes. One source told the FT that if unionisation were to be successful, meetings with management would request the company changes policy on defence contracts, or face potential strike action.
Big technology companies at war
In addition to Project Nimbus that sees the Israeli military and intelligence services using Amazon and Google technology for a range of purposes, including (it is alleged, targeting missile and drone strikes), other big technology companies are willing to work with organisations involved with military activity. Microsoft provided Israeli Defence Forces with engineering and technical support until 2024, after it failed to secure a $1.2bn contract for Israeli public sector cloud computing.
According to leaked documents, the IDF increased its use of Azure (Microsoft cloud services) storage by 60% during the first six months of the Israeli action in Gaza. The confidential documents allege that Microsoft communication services were used by an Israeli air force unit that manages databases of military targets.
Like Google, Microsoft dropped its pledge not to use its AIs for harmful purposes in 2024, and the leaked documents state that at one point during the same year, OpenAI’s GPT-4 model running on Azure accounted for a quarter of the IDF’s use of the platform.
Google’s next moves
Given the current political climate in Washington, efforts to unionise the Google DeepMind workforce will likely meet significant resistance from managers at the US company. The software engineering sector in particular has little history of unionisation of workforces, despite calls from activists such as Corey Doctorow, who has stated, “Only through collective action and solidarity — unions — could tech workers hope to truly resist all the moral injuries of their bosses’ […] imperatives.
Although the UK trade union movement has a long and proud tradition, its power in the country has suffered from successive governments’ actions to limit its scope and effect. Nevertheless, the right to join and be represented by a trade union remains enshrined in law, as is the requirement that employers engage with the union and its members.
It seems likely therefore that, in the current situation at the London headquarters of DeepMind, Google will use policies that re-align its workforce to better fit with the ethos of its customers.
