On Thursday, members of the Alphabet Workers Union delivered a petition carrying more than 4,500 employee signatures to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai’s office at the company’s California headquarters, calling for stronger safeguards against layoffs including improved severance packages and greater transparency. Alphabet Workers Union president and Google software engineer Parul Koul argued the company’s financial position does not justify ongoing job cuts, noting Alphabet had reached a valuation of roughly $4 trillion after quadrupling over the past six years. The petition demands guaranteed severance packages, voluntary buyout programmes before mandatory redundancies across all product divisions, and the option for departing employees to receive severance as extended paid leave. Union members also called for changes to Google’s performance review system, arguing existing evaluations rely too heavily on quota-based assessments. The demonstration revisited Alphabet’s large-scale layoffs in 2023, with employees criticizing previous workforce reductions. Google has not publicly linked its recent layoffs to artificial intelligence initiatives but has continued reducing parts of its workforce while simultaneously increasing investment.