A new labor union of Alphabet employees is already sending ripples across the tech industry, even though it may represent only a small portion of the company’s workers.
Labor activists and union representatives say the Monday announcement of the Alphabet union—which more than 200 employees at Google’s parent company formed—has given the nascent workers’ movement in tech a major visibility boost. Over the past 12 months, union representatives say they’ve had talks with employees at nearly all the large tech companies about forming similar unions. Since Monday, labor activists inside tech companies say they have seen a significant increase in inquiries from employees at small- and medium-size tech startups who want to form unions.