According to a Thursday report by wired.com, staff at Google DeepMind based in the United Kingdom have appealed to the government to step into their efforts to form a union at the AI lab.
The Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union filed an application with the Central Arbitration Committee, a government body that resolves disputes between employers and unions. The application asks the CAC to confirm that the unions have enough support from workers to trigger a unionization ballot, wired.com reported. Approximately 1,000 employees holding product-oriented positions at Google DeepMind would become eligible to join if the bid succeeds.
This heightened action comes after multiple discussions involving workers, labor organizations, and corporate delegates regarding voluntary recognition, which convinced personnel that management was dismissing their requests.
“They’ve been ignored. They feel like their problems have been minimized,” John Chadfield, national officer for technology at the CWU, told wired.com. “Management has refused to come to the table. They sent it to the HR and labor relations people, who dealt it as an administrative box-ticking exercise.”
Management maintained that it acted in good faith throughout the discussions with workers and union representatives.
“We respect the right of employees to make an informed decision about whether or not to join a union,” Tom Hewett, a Google DeepMind spokesperson, told wired.com in a statement.
“We have consistently listened to both those seeking to unionize and those opposed, and have acted in good faith from the outset. We remain committed to constructively participating in this process, and have maintained open and transparent communication with our employees and the unions throughout.”
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, sparked the drive for a union in February 2025 by striking a commitment from its moral code that previously promised to bar the use of artificial intelligence for military applications like weaponry.
“When I joined, we really made a big deal about the principles—the red lines. We were really looking to benefit humanity and make the world a better place,” a Google DeepMind employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of backlash, told wired.com. “A lot of this is about reestablishing that ethical and moral framework that we started with.”
The campaigning workers are specifically opposed to partnerships forged between the business and the militaries of the United States and Israel. If they succeed in unionizing, they intend to demand that Google backs out of those contracts.
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