Alphabet's parent company continues its quiet trimming of headcount while pouring resources into AI initiatives, and now over 4,500 Google workers have signed a petition demanding basic protections against arbitrary cuts. The Alphabet Workers Union delivered the document to Sundar Pichai's office on Thursday, requesting guaranteed severance packages matching the 2023 level, voluntary buyouts before any mandatory layoffs, the option to receive severance as extended paid leave, and an end to performance rating systems tied to arbitrary quotas rather than individual output. Workers chanted outside headquarters and referenced prior rounds of reductions, noting the company's $4 trillion-plus valuation and years of growth. The petition reportedly received the usual closed-door treatment from leadership, with a staff member accepting it as the largest piece of employee feedback on job security to date. Industry-wide patterns show similar moves at Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle, often framed around AI-driven efficiency gains that executives elsewhere have downplayed as inevitable. Union president Parul Koul stated plainly that these decisions reflect profit priorities over the people sustaining operations.