GoKawiilWhat just happened? In an age where tech workers are losing their jobs to AI at a frightening pace, thousands of Google's employees are taking action. Over 4,500 company staff have signed a petition calling for layoff protections, including guaranteed severance, buyouts before mandatory layoffs, and the option to take severance as extended paid leave.
Like many other companies invested in the AI boom, Google is enjoying plenty of success right now. Parent company Alphabet's latest quarter produced $109.9 billion in revenue, up 22%, while operating income rose 30% to $39.7 billion. It's also the third-largest company in the world by market cap with a $4.3 trillion valuation.
"Make no mistake: this is a company that is enjoying massive, unprecedented success," Parul Koul, Google software engineer and Alphabet Workers Union president, said outside the company's California headquarters after delivering the petition to the office of CEO Sundar Pichai.
But it seems that as these tech giants get richer, they lay off more people, often because of AI systems automating employees' jobs. Alphabet has laid off more than 14,000 people since the start of 2023, most of whom lost their jobs that year. "These layoffs and cuts are not difficult decisions, but simply profit being put over the people that make this company run," Koul added.
At a press conference on Thursday, employees chanted, "Google, Google, you can't hide, we can see your greedy side," and called out the 2023 mass layoffs.
Koul said workers were greeted with closed doors and no response for the most part after the petition was delivered to a staff member in Pichai's office, though they agreed to pass it on to the CEO. Koul called it "the largest piece of employee feedback that Google has received about job security."
The union also wants Google to end performance ratings that workers say are based on meeting quotas rather than merit. The company has denied forcing particular rating distributions, insisting that employees are assessed according to their individual performance, roles, levels, and expectations.
The campaign has already secured some benefits for employees. According to the union, voluntary exit packages have been made available to more than 70,000 Google workers since it began. The petition calls for these buyouts to be offered companywide before any mandatory layoffs.
Google Cloud quietly laid off employees in May, and the company eliminated more than one-third of the managers overseeing small teams last summer. More recently, hundreds of employees across its hardware, assistant, and engineering teams were let go in January 2026. Google also dismissed more than 200 contractors working on its AI products without warning in 2025 amid disputes over pay and working conditions.
Google has not confirmed that AI was responsible for its many job cuts. However, several other tech giants have been more open about the connection. Oracle reduced its workforce by 21,000 people over the last year and acknowledged that adopting AI had resulted in cuts. Block CEO Jack Dorsey cited AI efficiency gains when eliminating over 4,000 roles in February, almost half of the company's workforce.
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