Google Contract Workers Win Raise Following Union Activism

The Alphabet Workers Union said on Monday that thousands of contract employees assessing the quality of Alphabet Inc.’s Google search and advertising won a raise that brought workers’ wages up to $15 an hour, following a Bloomberg report documenting allegedly inadequate pay and benefits.

The AWU estimated that as many as 5,000 workers received the raise, which it said resulted in “millions in collective salary increases for workers,” according to a press release. The pay hike came after AWU, which lacks collective bargaining rights, staged rallies on both US coasts to call attention to labor conditions and delivered a petition demanding that all workers receive the benefits Google publicizes in its minimum standard of benefits for its extended workforce.