Google DeepMind Staff Tap the UK Government to Escalate Their Unionization Fight

Google DeepMind employees in the UK have escalated their unionization campaign by turning to the government after voluntary talks with the company broke down. On Thursday, the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union—chosen jointly by DeepMind staff as their representatives—filed an application with the Central Arbitration Committee, the government body that adjudicates disputes between employers and unions.

The application, seen by WIRED, asks the CAC to certify that the unions have sufficient worker support to trigger a unionization ballot, the results of which the company would be legally bound to respect. If the bid succeeds, roughly 1,000 product-focused employees at Google DeepMind would become eligible for union membership. Staff say the move follows a series of meetings with company representatives about voluntary unionization that left them feeling their demands were not being taken seriously.

John Chadfield, the CWU's national officer for technology, said workers "feel like their problems have been minimized," adding that management routed the matter to HR and labor relations personnel, who handled it as an "administrative box-ticking exercise." The organizing effort began in February 2025, when Alphabet removed from its ethics guidelines a pledge that it would not use AI for purposes including weapons development.

Employees say the dispute is rooted in that rollback. One DeepMind worker, speaking anonymously out of fear of backlash, told WIRED that staff joined because of the lab's stated red lines and its mission to benefit humanity, and that the union push is about "reestablishing that ethical and moral framework that we started with." Organizers specifically object to agreements between the company and the US and Israeli militaries, and say they intend to demand Google exit those contracts if they win recognition.

Google has publicly defended its defense work. In April, spokeswoman Jenn Crider told The New York Times that the company is proud to be part of a consortium of AI labs, technology firms, and cloud providers supporting national security, and that it remains committed to the consensus that AI should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight. A second anonymous DeepMind employee said staff "feel extremely concerned about the direction that this technology is going in."

In an email sent Thursday to all UK staff and seen by WIRED, the organizers urged colleagues to take part in the ballot they expect in the coming months: "We want a union, we want collective bargaining, and we want a say in how AI is developed and deployed." What remains unresolved is whether the CAC will certify worker support, how Google DeepMind will respond to a legally binding result, and whether any recognition would give the unions leverage over the lab's military contracts—the workers' stated end goal.