Bambi Okugawa is a data center technician at one of Google’s data centers in a state with one of the nation’s toughest anti-abortion laws: Tennessee. The state will ban abortions after six weeks under a “trigger law” on August 25, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
If necessary, Okugawa could have an out-of-state abortion and even apply for a permanent transfer to another office at Google because of the health benefits she receives as a full-time Google employee. However, their peers — many of whom are contractors — don’t have the same options.
“Some of my TVC colleagues are scared,” Okugawa told CNBC, referring to a Google term that stands for temporary workers, vendors, and contractors. “Some have told me that they have been looking for sterilization options because they know there will be no access to abortion in the state.”
Okugawa is one of several hundred Google employees who this week signed a petition to company management asking that contractors be given equal benefits in obtaining abortion and healthcare services after the Supreme Court ruled Roe v. Wade lifted.
The letter, written by members of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, is addressed to Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Google Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi, Bobby Dhanoa, who oversees Google’s “extended workforce,” and Google’s Chief Diversity Officer, Melonie Parker.
“To align with Google’s core values (go/3-google-values), we request that Alphabet recognize the impact of this Supreme Court ruling on all of its workers and do the following immediately: Protect all workers’ access to reproductive health care through.” establishing a standard for reproductive health care in the US Wages and Benefits Standards (go/alphabet-tvc-benefits-standards), including: “Expanding the same travel-for-health benefits offered to RTDs on TVCs,” the letter said .
In June, Google sent a company-wide email about the Supreme Court’s historic Roe v. Wade and explained how the company’s US benefit plan and health insurance cover out-of-state medical procedures that are not available where an employee lives and works. While other tech companies began offering similar benefits for out-of-state abortions, Google went further, saying employees in affected states can request a move without having to explain why.
However, all of these benefits only apply to full-time employees. The company employed 174,014 full-time employees in July. It has more than 100,000 contractors, known internally as “TVCs”.
“Their level of health care services is not as high as what we receive as full-time employees,” Okugawa said of contractors. Okugawa knows because she was a contractor until six months ago, before the company made her a full-time employee.
The employee petition also calls for at least seven days of additional sick time because workers must travel for extended periods to receive healthcare services.
“Google is probably one of the biggest household names for technology companies — when you search online, don’t say I’m going to search this, they say, ‘I’m going to google this,'” Okugawa said. Therefore, it is only right that we show compassion, empathy and fairness to anyone contracting with the company, who should be given the same protections and sustainability of life offered to regular employees.”
A Google spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
The Alphabet Workers Union-CWA has more than 1,100 members in various locations across the company, but otherwise operates on a “minority union” model, meaning it has no bargaining power with management.
The group hopes for successes like those in Kansas City, Missouri, where employees working on a Google product first unionized under the AWU in March. Meanwhile, in June, Google Maps contractor won a 90-day extension of the return-to-office deadline after threats of a strike.
The petition also calls for an increase in travel reimbursement to $150 per night. “$50 is NOT a viable reimbursement for a hotel stay in most states and does not apply to child care or lost wages,” the petition reads.
The document asks the company to release a TVC “Transparency Report” detailing vendors’ compliance with Google US Wages and Benefits standards.
And the employees also asked the company to correct its search results for abortion services. Products like Google Maps have reportedly regularly guided abortion seekers to pro-life religious centers. For example, when users type the words “abortion clinic” into the Google Maps search bar, crisis pregnancy centers made up a quarter of the top 10 search results in all 50 US states, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
Google said in July it would work to remove location history for people going to abortion centers and other medical facilities after the Roe v. Quickly clear Wade by the Supreme Court.