The union framed Google's expanded use of voluntary exit packages as a departure from the "mass layoffs without warning" conducted by competitors like Meta and Microsoft1. "We, the workers, are ensuring that this key demand becomes a default practice at Google, rather than an exception to the rule of mass layoffs," the union stated1.

The voluntary packages come six months after more than 1,300 Google employees signed a petition demanding job security protections23. The "Googlers for Job Security" campaign specifically called for voluntary buyouts before layoffs, guaranteed minimum severance benefits, and protection from performance review-based dismissals3.

Alongside the buyout offers, Google mandated that many fully remote employees within 50 miles of a Google office return to a hybrid work schedule12. Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said the moves were designed to "support our important work ahead" and "bring folks more together in-person"1.

The buyouts affected employees in Google's search, advertising, research and engineering units, according to The Wall Street Journal, though the exact number of impacted workers remains unknown1.

Google has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs since 2023, cutting 12,000 employees in January 2023 and over 1,000 in January 202412. The company faces ongoing antitrust scrutiny, with federal judges ruling its search engine an illegal monopoly and its digital ad network as improperly abusing market power3.

Olivia Asemota, vice president of the Alphabet Workers Union, said the organizing efforts emerged from worker anxiety about sudden layoffs. "A lot of folks have been feeling really anxious and worried about what was to come, especially given the nature of how the layoffs happened in the last two years, where they just came out of the blue," Asemota told SF Gate4.

The union represents 1,400 members out of Google's 150,000-person North American workforce5.