Over 40 contractors for YouTube Music are happening strike — a primary at Google, based on the Alphabet Employees Union (or AWU). The motion is in response to an order to return to in-person work subsequent week, one thing that most of the employees say they’ll’t do. They’re demanding a return-to-work coverage that’s “honest, versatile, and doesn’t threaten the security and livelihoods of employees,” based on an AWU press launch.

The employees are a part of the YouTube Music Content material Operations group through Cognizant, a subcontractor for Alphabet, Google and YouTube’s dad or mum firm. Their jobs are to “guarantee music content material is out there and permitted” for the platform, based on a prior press launch from the AWU.

The objections to the return to workplace plan stem from pay and availability. In response to the AWU, the contractors are paid as little as $19 an hour, making it troublesome to afford the relocation, journey, or childcare prices that they didn’t should pay when working remotely, as an alternative of at an workplace in Austin, TX.

An unnamed spokesperson for Cognizant informed Engadget that the return to workplace coverage had been “communicated to [the workers] repeatedly since December 2021,” and that that they had taken the positions “with the understanding that they have been accepting in-office positions, and that the group would work collectively at a bodily location based mostly in Austin.” Google wouldn’t present an on-the-record remark for this story, however the firm has informed the Nationwide Labor Relations board that it doesn’t see the employees as its staff, based on Bloomberg.

The contractors are at present trying to unionize with the AWU, which filed a petition with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board to symbolize the contractors in October. Final week, the AWU filed an unfair labor apply cost in opposition to Alphabet and Cognizant, claiming that the return to workplace was getting used to “intrude with the honest voting circumstances mandated by federal legislation,” as Sam Regan, one of many employees put it in a press launch.

There have been earlier organized labor actions at Google. In 2018, tens of hundreds of employees walked out to protest how Google dealt with sexual harassment, spurred on by experiences that it had paid Android co-founder Andy Rubin $90 million in severance after he was accused of sexual assault. And in 2022, a gaggle of Cognizant contractors engaged on Google Maps have been in a position to get their return-to-office pushed again after threatening to strike.