YouTube Music Workers Celebrate Blowout Victory in Historic AWU-CWA Union Election

YouTube Music Content Operations Team, who are subcontracted by Alphabet via Cognizant, have this week overwhelmingly won their election for a union by a vote of 41-0, after a many month campaign that dealt with a continuous union-busting effort from management. The unit, which includes 49 workers, is represented by Alphabet Workers Union-CWA and is the union’s second unit election victory since its launch in January 2021.

As members of the YouTube Music Content Operations team, workers are responsible for ensuring music content is available and approved for YouTube Music’s 80 million subscribers worldwide. Even as workers contribute to the success of the YouTube platform, valued at over $180 billion dollars, workers are paid as little as $19 dollars an hour and receive minimal benefits. Many workers are forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

“My coworkers and I have spoken, time and time again—we want, and have won, a protected voice on the job to bring both Alphabet and Cognizant to the negotiating table so that we can win the fair working conditions we deserve. No one working for a multi-billion dollar platform should have to juggle three jobs to make ends meet, and no one should have to give up their livelihoods due to a retaliatory Return-To-Office mandate. We have shown our power as workers on the picket line, and now in our union election. Today’s victory sets us on our path to earn our fair share and we hope other tech workers join us by standing shoulder to shoulder with their coworkers and flexing their power on the job,” said Maxwell Longfield, YouTube Music contract worker with Cognizant and member of AWU-CWA. Read more in Vice, Bloomberg, SFGate, and TechCrunch.