YouTube Music team laid off by Google while workers testified to Austin City Council about working conditions
- The entire YouTube Music team is out of a job after going on strike last year.
- Some of the workers were lobbying for support for their union at an Austin City Council meeting.
- A Google spokesperson said the move was a regular contract termination.
The entire YouTube Music team is out of a job as tensions rise at Google parent company, Alphabet.
The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents workers at Google’s parent company, Alphabet, said Google laid off the YouTube Music team on Friday.
Some of the Alphabet workers found out about the layoff while they were speaking at an Austin City Council meeting in Texas, where the city council was set to vote on a resolution asking the company to negotiate with the union.
“We just got laid off, our jobs are ending today, effective immediately,” one worker tells the city council in video of the meeting.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, the union said the YouTube Music team was based out of Austin, and was receiving such low pay that some members were working multiple jobs to make ends meet.
“Even as workers contribute to the success of the billion dollar platform, they are paid as little as $19 dollars an hour and receive minimal benefits,” the union said.
The YouTube Music team previously went on strike in February 2023 over Google’s crackdown on remote work.
Google has publicly refused to negotiate with the Alphabet union since workers voted to unionize in April 2023, the union says.
Cognizant, a professional services company that Alphabet contracted the YouTube Music team through, said in a statement that the workers were let go after their contract ended at its intended date, according to KXAN in Austin.
The company said the workers will receive seven weeks of paid time to “explore other roles within the organization,” according to the outlet.
A spokesperson for Google told Business Insider that Cognizant is responsible for ending the workers’ employment, not Google.
“Contracts with our suppliers across the company routinely end on their natural expiry date, which was agreed to with Cognizant,” the company said in a statement.
Cognizant did not immediately return Business Insider’s request for comment on Saturday.
The layoffs come as Alphabet and Google CEO, Sundar Pichai faces calls for his resignation. Pichai and Google are feeling the growing pressure of competition from new innovations in artificial intelligence, heightened by the company’s recent failures with AI, BI previously reported.
Google recently put a hold on its AI image generator, Gemini, after it created historically inaccurate photos.
On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider’s parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company’s advertising practices.
