Employees at YouTube Music, subcontracted through Cognizant, were laid off as the contract between Cognizant and Google expired. Less than 50 workers at YouTube Music are part of the Alphabet Workers Union, which is under Alphabet, Google's parent company.

Typically, when employees are laid off from a company, they're informed either via email or in a surprise meeting with HR. It's uncommon for such news to be revealed publicly, visible to the world. However, this is precisely what occurred to a cohort of employees at YouTube during a recent City Council hearing in Austin, Texas. 

In a viral video circulating on social media platform X, which has amassed over 1.4 million views, an employee at Google's YouTube Music discovered during his testimony at an Austin City Council hearing that his team was being laid off. 

Watch the full video here: 

"Sorry to interrupt, but they've just laid off all of us," another colleague interjected, speaking into the microphone at the stand. "Our positions are terminated effective immediately." Following this revelation, a City Council member on the panel notified the employee that his allotted time had "expired" and assured him that the council would "follow up" on the matter at a later time. 

The employees at YouTube Music are subcontracted through the tech company Cognizant, and their layoffs were attributed to the expiration of the contract between Cognizant and Google, reported The Street. The fewer than 50 employees at YouTube Music are part of the Alphabet Workers Union. Alphabet is the parent company of Google. 

The union was providing testimony during the Austin City Council hearing to urge Google to engage in negotiations with its unionised workers at YouTube Music. "In a press release, the Alphabet Workers Union stated, 'On Thursday, February 29, Google notified workers on the YouTube Music Content Operations Team of impending layoffs, just hours prior to a scheduled vote by the Austin City Council on a resolution urging Google to engage in good-faith negotiations with these very workers.'" 

According to The Streets, the union asserts that employees at YouTube Music secured a union election victory with the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA in April of last year. In response, Google declined to engage in negotiations with them—a decision deemed unlawful by the National Labor Relations Board. 

The employees at YouTube Music decided to unionise due to their assertion that they are "paid as little as $19 an hour and receive minimal benefits," as stated in the press release. Additionally, they allege that they are "compelled to work multiple jobs to make ends meet." 

Many of the workers also participated in a strike against Google/Alphabet last year in February, prompted by the company's insistence on returning to in-person work, with "voluntary termination" being the only alternative for those who refused. 

The union asserts that shortly after learning about the layoffs during the Feb. 29 Austin City Council hearing, the council passed its resolution. Jack Benedict, a member of AWU-CWA, expressed dismay, stating, 

"This is devastating. We have been fighting for years now to get Google, one of the most powerful and well-resourced companies in the world, to negotiate with us so that we could make a living in exchange for the work we do to make their products better. It is disgusting that Google has taken this path when confronted with its workers’ modest demands to be treated fairly on the job." 

When asked for comment, the Alphabet Workers Union directed the media to its press release. The tech industry continues to experience a wave of layoffs.