The DeepMind team in the United Kingdom is reportedly seeking to unionize, driven by rising concerns over ethical issues surrounding their work with the Israeli military. This initiative has the participation of nearly 2,000 staff in the UK. That would be a huge change for one of Google’s most-visible—and, often, praised—subsidiaries. DeepMind, a division of Google and its parent company Alphabet, has been coming under intensifying scrutiny. Team members joined the rank-and-file revolt at Google over that tech giant’s controversial $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with Israel’s military.
Taken together with other recent successes, this represents a growing wave of tech worker organizing. Most notably, a smaller group of about 200 workers from Google and Alphabet have recently declared their own plans to unionize. These movements are usually rooted in urgent moral crises and difficult working environments. For tech workers today, this is very personal.
DeepMind employees have voiced their concerns about the implications of working with the Israeli military, particularly given the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region. The contract has motivated protests at Google and has already triggered at least five DeepMind employee resignations. These people listed ethical conflicts related to the military partnership as their main reason for leaving.
Contracting with the Israeli military duped our members. This predicament provides an opportunity to illuminate any disconnect between their own values and the corporate company’s trajectory. Employees are calling for more transparency and accountability from leadership over these kinds of partnerships and what they mean in a broader scope.
DeepMind employees are advocating for unionization. They want to develop a group wisdom—far deeper than just the sum of their parts—to tackle these complicated, intersecting issues. They organized a union to address workplace issues at the source. Their stated intention is to push back against decisions that conflict with their values and professional ethics.
