Google workers stage rallies against layoffs, low wages: report

While one protest was staged on Wednesday at the tech giant’s headquarters in California, a second demonstration took place near Google’s corporate offices in New York City the following day, the report said..

The protests came after the company announced the largest reduction in its history — 12,000 positions, or 6% of its global workforce.

Other major tech firms including Microsoft Corp., Salesforce Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have also recently announced layoffs.

The protest in New York, which drew about 50 employees outside a Google store on Ninth Avenue, began just minutes after parent company Alphabet Inc. reported fourth-quarter results, including $13.6 billion in profit.

Alphabet’s revenue from Google advertising, which includes Search and YouTube, fell to $59.04 billion from $61.24 billion, as advertisers spent less in a bid to cope with the high inflation, interest rates and recession fears, according to a Reuters report.

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Advertisers are Google’s biggest source of revenue.Alphabet’s net income fell to $13.62 billion, or $1.05 per share, from $20.64 billion, or $1.53 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $76.05 billion in the fourth quarter from $75.33 billion a year ago.

“We are committed to investing responsibly with great discipline and defining areas where we can operate more cost- effectively,” Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told analysts on a call to discuss the company’s results.

“Today, Google has debunked its own rationale for laying off 12,000 of our co-workers,” said Alberta Devor, a software engineer, adding, “It is clear that the menial savings the company is pocketing from laying off workers is nothing in comparison to the billions spent on stock buybacks or the billions made in profit last quarter.”

Both demonstrations were organized by the labor group Alphabet Workers Union that doesn’t have collective bargaining rights, and whose members include Google subcontractors as well as employees.

At Wednesday’s rally in California, dozens of subcontractors spoke out against what they called substandard conditions, including what they said were “poverty wages and no benefits.”

The workers say their pay and benefits fall far below Google’s own minimum standards and benefits for its direct contract workers.