Google DeepMind Employees in the UK Seek Unionization Amid Concerns Over Pentagon AI Contracts

Google DeepMind Workers Launch Landmark Bid to Unionise, Citing Concerns Over Military Contracts

In a significant move, workers at Google DeepMind's UK office have initiated a bid to unionise, driven by deep concerns over the company's expanding military contracts and what they perceive as a retreat from its previously championed ethical principles. The unionisation bid, backed by an overwhelming majority of members affiliated with the Communication Workers Union (CWU), places Google at the centre of a growing confrontation between Silicon Valley's AI ambitions and the conscience of the workforce building them.

The immediate catalyst for the unionisation bid is a deal Google struck with the US Department of Defense, allowing its Gemini AI models to be used inside classified military networks for "any lawful purpose." Critics, including many within Google itself, argue that the agreement contains few enforceable limits and could open pathways to autonomous weapons development and mass surveillance of American citizens. Google is not alone in having signed such arrangements, with OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon also agreeing to comparable contracts. Anthropic, however, has refused to sign such a deal, a decision that prompted the Pentagon to order the military and all defence contractors to cease using its products, labelling the company a "supply chain risk" – a designation Anthropic is currently challenging in court.

Within Google, the backlash has been substantial, with over 600 employees signing an open letter opposing the Pentagon deal. Several others have spoken out publicly in the press and on social media. The unionisation bid seeks to formalise the workers' demands, which include an end to Google AI being used by the US Department of Defense and the Israeli military.

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Unionisation Vote Unfolds

The CWU and Unite the Union are jointly seeking formal recognition to represent approximately 1,000 staff at Google DeepMind's London office. In a vote held among CWU members already at DeepMind, 98% backed the bid. Workers have written formally to management requesting union recognition, with a 10-working-day deadline to either voluntarily accept the request or agree to mediated negotiations. Failing this, a legal process to compel recognition will be initiated.

What Google DeepMind Workers Are Demanding

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Beyond formal recognition, the employees have set out a series of specific demands. Chief among them is an end to Google AI being used by the US Department of Defense and the Israeli military. Workers are also requesting the reinstatement of a company commitment, originally published in 2018 following employee protests over Project Maven, that Google would not develop AI for weapons or surveillance violating internationally accepted norms. That commitment was quietly removed from Google's public website in February 2025.

Additional demands include the establishment of an independent ethics oversight body and the individual right for employees to refuse to work on projects they find morally objectionable.

A Wider Campaign Against Google's Military Contracts

The unionisation bid sits within a broader campaign the CWU says includes in-person protests and research strikes, with employees threatening to abstain from work on core products including the Gemini AI assistant. One Google DeepMind employee, who requested anonymity to speak freely about their employer, stated: "Hopefully this will help employees help the DeepMind and Google leadership grow a spine when it comes to standing up to what they have preached and publicly endorsed as our values and principles for the last two decades."

The effort draws directly on the memory of 2018, when thousands of Google employees signed a petition and several resigned in protest over Project Maven, a Pentagon contract to apply AI to drone footage analysis. The internal pressure ultimately forced Google to abandon that contract, demonstrating the power employees could wield when organised. However, the leverage workers wield has since diminished, with cost-cutting measures, surging AI investment, and widespread layoffs across the technology sector collectively weakening the bargaining position of workers throughout the industry.