Workers developing Google's AI products in the United Kingdom have decided to unionize, citing concerns about a recent agreement between the tech giant and the American military. In a letter to management obtained by The Guardian, staff at Google DeepMind requested recognition of the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives for the lab's UK-based personnel.

The unionization vote took place in April. One employee told The Guardian that the decision was fueled by reports that Google was nearing a deal with the Department of War. The worker pointed to Washington's "capricious Iran war" and the Trump administration's dispute with Anthropic as evidence that the Department of War is "not a responsible partner." The deal was formally announced last Friday.

"I have joined the union due to concerns about AI being used to empower authoritarianism, whether through military or surveillance applications, both foreign and domestic," said the worker, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. "By unionizing, we are taking the traditional route for workers to organize and have a say."

Workers cite role in genocide

Another employee, also speaking anonymously, expressed anguish over what they perceived as their own complicity in "Israel's" genocide in Gaza. The Washington Post reported last year that Google had granted the Israeli military expanded access to its AI tools during the early stages of the genocide. In 2021, alongside Amazon, the company signed a $1.2 billion cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government.

"Our technology helped the IDF," the second UK worker said, referring to the Israeli occupation forces. "I want AI to benefit humanity, not to facilitate a genocide."

A Google spokesperson stated, "Google UK recently received a letter from Unite and the Communications Workers Union requesting recognition for Google DeepMind UK employees. We have always valued constructive dialogue with employees and we'll remain focused on creating a positive and successful workplace." Another spokesperson added that the company was "not aware of any vote to officially unionise."

Frontier AI lab's first union seeks to pressure Google on ethics

Employee and investor discontent has been building for years, but it intensified after Google abandoned its pledge not to develop weaponized AI. Two DeepMind workers said that reversal was a primary motivation for unionizing. While small groups of Google employees have unionized in the United States before, the UK workers represent the first union recognition effort inside a "frontier" AI laboratory.

Google DeepMind is headquartered in London and maintains roughly a dozen offices across North America and Europe. Union officials say at least 1,000 workers would be covered if the company agrees to recognize the union.

On Friday, the Department of War announced it had reached agreements with seven leading AI firms: Google, SpaceX, OpenAI, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services. Notably absent from the list was Anthropic, whose technology is widely used by the US military but which has clashed with the Pentagon over future contracts.

"The US has pushed AI companies to make their tools available on classified networks without the standard restrictions they apply to users."

Google's contract with the Department of War reportedly includes non-binding language stating that the AI system is "not intended for, and should not be used for, domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons (including target selection) without appropriate human oversight and control." However, the agreement also specifies that Google has no right to veto "lawful" government operational decisions.

Workers considering 'research strikes' and protests

Employees who voted to unionize said they aim to pressure Google to meet demands already raised by other workers, including a commitment not to develop technology whose primary purpose is to cause harm, the creation of an independent ethics oversight body, and the right for individual employees to refuse work on moral grounds. If the company resists, they are considering protests and so-called "research strikes", refusing work on major product improvements like Gemini, Google's AI bot, while continuing minor updates to avoid detection.

Tensions have been rising across Google. Last week, amid reports of the pending military deal, more than 600 employees signed an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai demanding that the company not make its AI systems available for classified use.

"We want to see AI benefit humanity; not to see it being used in inhumane or extremely harmful ways," they wrote. "Making the wrong call right now would cause irreparable damage to Google's reputation, business, and role in the world."

Tech workers have increasingly challenged management over the use of the technologies they helped create. In 2024, Google fired 50 employees who protested against Project Nimbus, the 2021 contract with the Israeli government. At Microsoft, which The Guardian revealed had supplied "Israel" with cloud storage used in mass surveillance of Palestinians, workers occupied a campus with signs reading "No Labor for Genocide." Microsoft later terminated the Israeli military's access to that technology.

Investors also demand transparency

A coalition of shareholders holding approximately $2.2 billion in Alphabet shares sent a letter to Google's parent company last week demanding a meeting and greater transparency regarding Google Cloud and AI deployments in "high-risk" contexts.

They raised concerns about services provided to US immigration authorities, as well as Project Nimbus, and questioned the effectiveness of policy safeguards and board oversight for AI deployments in conflict zones and security-sensitive environments.

In 2018, Google faced widespread employee protests over Project Maven, a military contract to build AI for Pentagon drone footage analysis. The company did not renew the contract in 2019 and issued a set of AI principles that included a now‑abandoned pledge not to design AI for weapons. Palantir took over Project Maven, which continues to this day.

Source:Websites