More than 900 Google workers have signed a letter objecting to the tech giant's treatment of temporary contractors, in what organizers are calling a "historical coalition" between Google's full-time employees and temps, vendors and contractors (TVCs).
In March, Google abruptly shortened the contracts of 34 temp workers on the personality team for Google Assistant -- a digital assistant that reads you the weather, manages your calendar, sends a text message, among others -- which affected contractors around the globe and reinvigorated the debate over Google's extensive use of TVCs.
The TVCs on the personality team described themselves in the March 27 letter as "the human labor that makes the Assistant relevant, funny, and relatable in more than 50 languages." They are responsible for coming up with the Assistant's not-too-groan-inducing jokes as well as the tone and content of more serious questions.
TVCs make up 54 percent of Google's global workforce, and more than half of the people are on the personality team, according to the letter.
On March 8, 34 TVCs were informed that their contracts were ending ahead of schedule, either on April 5 or, in a few cases, on July 31, according to the letter.
"By the time I got the news, I was already in agony and very stressed," said one of the fired TVCs, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The moment you say you work for Google, people think you are rich ... They don't know that I don't even have insurance."
