Google contractors who helped train the Bard AI chatbot vote to unionize

• Contract workers for Accenture on Monday voted to unionize, following layoffs in August.
• The workers have written Google Help articles and workshopped the Bard AI chatbot's responses.

Google contractors with Accenture, who have written Google Help articles and reviewed AI-generated content from the Bard chatbot, voted on Monday to unionize with the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents Google employees and contractors.

The vote came after a coalition of 118 Accenture workers announced their union in June. Of 36 eligible voters, 26 workers voted yes. Two voted no, and eight votes were challenged by Accenture. These challenges were later dismissed as the number wasn't significant enough to affect the election.

Monday's successful vote is another milestone for unionization among workers who help underpin artificial-intelligence systems. Accenture's bargaining unit asked for more control over which Google assignments they had to accept if it was outside the scope of their usual work — including their work on Bard. Organizers also sought better pay, benefits, and paid time off.

In August, 80 Accenture workers were laid off. The fledgling union filed a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board shortly after, alleging that the layoffs were retaliatory and, therefore, illegal.

"We organized so that we could have a say in our working conditions," Jen Hill, a Google Help designer and member of the Alphabet Workers Union, said in a statement. "In response, Google has tried to skirt its responsibility to us as our employer, while also laying off dozens of our team members."

Google is appealing the NLRB's September ruling that it was a joint employer of Accenture contractors. If successful, the appeal could shield Google from legal liability after laying off the organizing Accenture workers.

Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesperson, said the company had no objection to Accenture workers unionizing and added: "As we made clear in our active appeal to the NLRB, we are not a joint employer as we simply do not control their employment terms or working conditions — this matter is between the workers and their employer, Accenture."

The NLRB declined to comment. An Accenture spokesperson said the company would continue to participate in the NLRB process.

"We acknowledge the right of our people to form or join unions, and we work cooperatively with works councils and labor unions in various countries around the globe," the spokesperson said.

Accenture contractors worked on Bard

Google rushed its release of Bard in an effort to make a product to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Many Accenture workers were recruited for a "top-secret project," which ended up being work on Bard, Bloomberg reported in January. Workers said they had to fact-check the large language model's prompt responses and engineer their own answers to theoretical prompts. These prompts included "obscene, graphic, and offensive" content, Bloomberg reported. Workers said they weren't given appropriate training or resources for this work.

When a person complained to Accenture's human-resources department about these concerns, their work was reassigned to lower-paid workers based in Manila, Bloomberg reported.

"It is unjust that our jobs are being shipped off to workers who will be paid even less than us and will have access to even fewer labor protections," Hill said.

Laura Greene, a union organizer and multimedia team leader with Accenture who was affected by the August layoffs, said she hoped workers could get their jobs back or at least get back pay following the union's NLRB complaint contesting the layoffs.

"It's an important moral victory," Greene said regarding Monday's vote. "But a lot of people have been displaced or out of work now. That's the bittersweet part of it."

Other Google contractors have unionized

Monday's vote marks the second time this year contractors for Google have successfully voted to unionize with the NLRB.

In April, YouTube contractors employed by Cognizant voted to unionize. A few weeks later, Google decided to downsize its Cognizant workforce. Three laid-off workers filed a complaint to the NLRB against Google and Cognizant in June, saying their layoffs were retaliatory in response to the recent unionization effort. The case is ongoing.

Alphabet also disputed the NLRB's ruling that it's a joint employer of Cognizant workers.

Outside Google, more than 150 African contractors working on AI tools for companies such as Meta, ByteDance, and OpenAI voted to unionize in May, forming the Content Moderators Union.

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Correction: November 6, 2023 — A previous version of this story misstated the company challenging the union election votes. Eight votes were challenged by Accenture, not Google.