Negotiations surrounding a potential union at Google DeepMind have hit a rough patch, with union reps feeling their initial discussions were a waste of time, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Back in May, DeepMind employees asked Google to officially recognize the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite the Union as their representatives. While the company initially declined, they later agreed to enter into negotiations overseen by a third-party mediator.
The first meeting, held this past Wednesday, included union officials, DeepMind employees involved in the unionization effort, the arbitrator, and HR reps. However, those pushing for union recognition were reportedly frustrated by the conspicuous absence of any senior DeepMind leadership. "Recognition talks not being attended by senior management at the opening stage is a leading indicator that a company isn’t engaging in good faith. It’s just a time-wasting exercise," stated John Chadfield, a CWU officer who was present, adding that negotiations have stalled prematurely.
A Google DeepMind spokesperson, Al Verney, contested this, stating, "The first step in the process is to define who the unions want to represent and the parties agreed on next steps to do this. The appropriate representatives attended this initial meeting." During the meeting, a DeepMind employee read a letter from colleagues supporting unionization, which WIRED has reviewed. The letter claims that instead of engaging in dialogue, Google DeepMind workers are being treated as a problem for HR. The employee reading the statement was reportedly interrupted twice by DeepMind HR representatives.
The letter further alleges that Google has actively tried to shut down open discussions and quell dissent by altering or closing internal chat channels and preventing staff from responding to company-wide messages about the unionization push. Employees who tried to bypass these restrictions were allegedly reprimanded. "The intention was to intimidate," claimed a DeepMind employee involved in drafting the letter, who wished to remain anonymous. "These are well-established union-busting techniques." Verney responded, “We’ll continue to engage constructively in the…process and have open dialogue with employees. For topics outside of this, we continue to offer employees a variety of other channels and opportunities to discuss their views.”
The drive for unionization at DeepMind reportedly stems from February 2025, when Google’s parent company, Alphabet, removed its pledge against using AI for purposes like weapons development and surveillance from its ethics guidelines. "Those principles were a big part of why I joined DeepMind," said another DeepMind employee, who also requested anonymity. "We basically just got rid of them all." This concern about the militarization of AI models is a growing issue across the industry, with DeepMind and OpenAI staff signing an open letter supporting Anthropic after the US Department of Defense flagged the lab as a supply chain risk for refusing to allow its technology in autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
This comes after reports in April that Google had made a deal allowing the Pentagon to use its AI for "any lawful government purpose," a move protested by around 600 US-based Google employees. The US Department of Defense later confirmed deals with major AI companies, including Google, SpaceX, and OpenAI, to use their models on classified networks. Google has defended these partnerships, with a spokeswoman stating in April, “We are proud to be part of a broad consortium of leading AI labs and technology and cloud companies providing AI services and infrastructure in support of national security. We remain committed to the private and public sector consensus that AI should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight.”
If negotiations in London don't improve, CWU representative Chadfield indicated that employees will ask an arbitration committee to compel Google to recognize the unions. "We’re hoping that Google genuinely comes to the table and we can agree something amicably," Chadfield stated. "[But] both sides have to come to the table with some concessions. Google is coming with no concessions whatsoever."
