Negotiations Between Google DeepMind and Employees: A Rocky Start Toward Unionization
Negotiations between Google As WIRED has learned, DeepMind and its London-based employees stumbled upon the possibility of unionization this week after initial discussions left union representatives feeling like they had wasted their time.
Call for Union Recognition Rejected
In May, DeepMind employees called on Google to recognize the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives. The company later rejected that request but agreed to participate in the negotiations, which were arbitrated by a third party.
Initial Meetings and Frustrations
An initial meeting on Wednesday was attended by union officials, DeepMind employees involved in union organizing, the independent arbitrator, and representatives from DeepMind’s human resources department. Those pushing for unionization have been frustrated by the lack of DeepMind leadership.
“When recognition meetings are held, if senior management is not present at the opening stage, it is a leading indicator that a company is not engaging in good faith. It is just a waste of time,” claims John Chadfield, a CWU official who attended the meeting. “The negotiations stalled early on.”
DeepMind denies that negotiations have stalled. “The first step in this process is to define who the unions want to represent, and the parties agreed on the next steps to do so,” said Al Verney, a spokesman for Google DeepMind. “The relevant representatives attended this first meeting.”
Employee Concerns and Allegations
During the meeting, a DeepMind employee read a prepared letter on behalf of colleagues who support unionization, which was reviewed by WIRED. “Instead of having a meaningful dialogue with its employees about our concerns, Google DeepMind treated employees like a problem that was passed on to HR,” the letter said. According to multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting, the employee reading the statement was interrupted twice by DeepMind human resources representatives.
The letter further alleges that Google attempted to stifle open dialogue among DeepMind employees and crack down on dissent by closing or reconfiguring internal chat venues and preventing employees from responding to company-wide communications about the union bid. Employees who tried to circumvent restrictions were “reprimanded” by human resources, the letter said.
“The intent was to intimidate,” claims a DeepMind employee involved in writing the letter, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “These are proven union-busting techniques.”
“We will continue to engage constructively in the… process and maintain an open dialogue with the employees,” says Verney. “For topics beyond this, we continue to offer employees a variety of additional channels and opportunities to exchange their views.”
Background of Unionization Efforts
The push to unionize at DeepMind began in February 2025, when Google’s parent company Alphabet removed a promise not to use AI for purposes such as weapons development and surveillance from its ethics guidelines, as WIRED previously reported.
“These principles were a big reason I joined DeepMind,” says a second DeepMind employee, who asked to remain anonymous for the same reason. “We basically just got rid of them all.”
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