Google employees protest, deliver petition to CEO Sundar Pichai demanding job security

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Google Employees Protest at Headquarters, Demand Job Security and Layoff Protections

Dozens of Google employees from across the country gathered near the company's Mountain View headquarters on Thursday, holding signs reading "Googlers for Job Security" and demanding stronger protections against layoffs.

At noon, nearly 100 workers filled a grassy area of the campus, flanked by the Googleplex and the canopy of Google's visitor center. Many wore matching black shirts, while others held Alphabet Workers Union placards or helped unfurl a long white banner bearing the names of over 4,500 employees who signed a petition on job security addressed to CEO Sundar Pichai and three senior executives.

"We want voluntary exits before layoffs, we want guaranteed severance standards, we want an end to performance quotas," Parul Koul, a Google software engineer and president of the Alphabet Workers Union, told the crowd. The union has around 1,400 members. Alphabet, Google's parent company, employs nearly 191,000 people.

A Shift in Tech Industry Sentiment

The protest reflects a shift that has unsettled workers across the tech industry. Since 2022, companies including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have cut tens of thousands of jobs, often through repeated rounds that left employees waiting for the next notice. Google laid off 12,000 employees in 2023 and has since conducted several smaller rounds, collectively affecting thousands of workers.

At Google, a workforce known for pushing management on ethics and corporate policy is now organizing around a more fundamental issue: whether employees can count on basic security in an era of rolling layoffs, tougher performance systems, and anxiety over how AI will reshape their jobs.

Petition Demands and Union Actions

The petition, first drafted by the union in early 2025, asks Google to:

• Guarantee severance for every laid-off worker
• Offer voluntary exit packages before mandatory cuts
• End forced-distribution performance ratings
• Allow employees to receive severance as extended paid leave

The union also wants Google to make voluntary exits a formal policy rather than offering them selectively.

Koul told Business Insider that employees tried to deliver the petition to Pichai last year. After receiving no substantive response, they continued collecting signatures and returned Thursday with more than twice as many names.

Business Insider attended the event and spoke with Googlers about their demands. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Delivering the Petition to Top Executives

About 20 workers began delivering the petition around 9 a.m. on Thursday, Kaylee Lubick, a Google software engineer and union member, told Business Insider.

The group first visited the offices of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and senior vice presidents Rick Osterloh and Nick Fox, then went to Pichai's office. Lubick said the executives were not present to meet with them, so the employees slipped the petition under their doors.

The union says Google has offered voluntary exit packages to more than 70,000 workers across several rounds since the campaign began. Koul told Business Insider that this figure reflects the number of employees eligible for the offers, not the number who accepted them.

Workers Describe a Changed Workplace

At the protest, speakers described a workplace reshaped by several rounds of layoffs.

"I see worried people, grateful to still have a job, do the best they can to keep it," said Nobel Barakat, a Google software engineer. "I've seen people work longer and longer days with the hopes that they avoid a sudden poor performance rating."

Matthew Hoffman, a Google DeepMind engineer, said he joined the protest to show his support, even though he had not been personally affected by layoffs and had not yet joined the union.

"I think I realized that just because something hasn't affected you personally doesn't mean it won't someday," he said.

As television cameras rolled, workers raised their signs and chanted: "Google, Google, can't you see? We deserve security."

A History of Employee Activism at Google

Thursday's protest drew on Google's long history of employee activism.

• In 2018, more than 4,000 workers opposed Project Maven, a Pentagon contract that used Google's AI to analyze drone footage.
• Later that year, roughly 20,000 employees walked out over Google's handling of sexual-misconduct allegations against senior executives.
• In 2024, Google fired workers after sit-ins protesting Project Nimbus, its cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government.

On Wednesday, Business Insider reported that a Goog...