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Google contractors reach first union agreement

The exterior of a Google office in London

Google contractors for HCL America have reached a tentative first contract with the steelworkers union.

Photo: Future Publishing/Getty Images

After two years of negotiations, about 60 Pittsburgh-based workers represented by the United Steelworkers have reached a tentative union contract agreement with Google contractor HCL America, becoming one of the first unions to ever successfully reach a formal contract agreement with a large tech company.

The proposed contract includes wage increases, pay parity, additional protections for job security and additional paid time off. Union members will vote to ratify the contract on July 30.

The National Labor Relations board alleged in October 2020 that HCL America failed to negotiate with the union in good faith, including by moving work from Pittsburgh to Krakow, Poland in retaliation for the unionization effort.

"Nearly two years ago, HCL's employees voted to organize and bargain collectively for a fair contract, and the company fought viciously against it for as long as it could," USW International President Tom Conway said in a press release.

Anna Kramer

Anna Kramer is a reporter at Protocol (Twitter: @ anna_c_kramer, email: akramer@protocol.com), where she writes about labor and workplace issues. Prior to joining the team, she covered tech and small business for the San Francisco Chronicle and privacy for Bloomberg Law. She is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she studied International Relations and Arabic and wrote her senior thesis about surveillance tools and technological development in the Middle East.

unionsunionizationgoogleworkers
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