Workers at Google LLC and its parent company Alphabet Inc. have formed a global union alliance that includes 13 unions in 10 different countries on launch.

The alliance, called Alpha Global, was announced this morning. The news comes just weeks after a group of more than 200 Google workers in the U.S. and Canada formed a union to represent employees and contractors of the search giant. That union has since reportedly grown to more than 700 members.

Alpha Global was formed in coordination with UNI Global Union, a global union federation that represents more than 20 million workers in sectors such as information, communications, technology and services. Alpha Global includes some 13 Alphabet worker unions across 10 countries: the U.S., Switzerland, Ireland, the U.K., Italy, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Belgium.

Google “is a place where many workers came to change the world — to make it more democratic — only to find Google suppressing speech and cracking down on worker organizing while consolidating monopolistic power,” Alpha Global organizers said in a joint statement today.

According to the statement, members of the union alliance will seek to cooperate with other Alphabet workers to build local organizations that reflect the values and interests of the search giant’s workforce. Alpha Global said it commits to “fight for the rights of direct Alphabet employees as well as temporary, vendor and contract workers who work on Alphabet contracts, often in the same locations and performing the same duties as the Alphabet employees.”

“We’ve always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce,” Kara Silverstein, Google’s director of people operations, said in a statement following the announcement of Alpha Global’s formation today.  “Of course our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees.”

Now that Alpha Global has publicly announced its formation, the alliance is said to be preparing to elect a steering committee, which could reportedly include both Google workers and union organizers. 

Google has more than 260,000 full-time employees and contractors worldwide. 

Photo: Google