YouTube’s legal battle against unionized contractors looks as if it’s headed to federal court

YouTube is vowing to file an appeal after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in favor of a group of unionized contractors. The NLRB decreed that YouTube illegally refused to negotiate with the contractors even after they joined the Alphabet Workers Union.

The case centers around a group of Austin-based workers who came to work at YouTube Music through the staffing firm Cognizant. Those contractors attempted to collectively bargain with YouTube to address the terms of their remote work policy. YouTube argued that it didn’t control the working conditions of staffers hired by Cognizant, but the NLRB disagreed. “Google exercises direct and immediate control over benefits, hours of work, supervision and direction of work,” an NLRB regional director said in a March 2023 statement.

In April of last year, the contractors officially voted to join the Alphabet Workers Union, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America. But YouTube still contends that it should not be compelled to negotiate with workers it did not hire directly. “As we’ve said before, we have no objection to these Cognizant employees electing to form a union,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement provided to Bloomberg

. “We simply believe it’s only appropriate for Cognizant, as their employer, to engage in collective bargaining.”

YouTube’s argument has not convinced the NLRB. The federal board gave the unionized contractors another win on January 3, when it ordered YouTube to “cease and desist” its refusal to negotiate with the Alphabet Workers Union reps. The decision-makers in Mountain View are likely to file an appeal in federal court.

Concerns raised by the Alphabet Workers Union have included alleged intimidation tactics from YouTube and Cognizant and return-to-office rules that threaten to derail organizational efforts. Cognizant has claimed that the allegations have “no merit,” but YouTube’s “shadow work force” deserves merit based on its size alone. Bloomberg noted that contractors have made up the majority of Alphabet’s workforce since 2018.