The union will represent those who voluntarily join it.

In the past decade, Google workers have staged numerous demonstrations and protests against some of the massive company’s more questionable practices, including its work on drone targeting AI Project Maven and forced arbitration policies. Today, a subset of Google and Alphabet employees have announced that they will be taking their work to the next level by formally unionizing in cooperation with the Communications Workers of America.

“This union builds upon years of courageous organizing by Google workers,” said Nicki Anselmo, a Google program manager. “From fighting the ‘real names’ policy, to opposing Project Maven, to protesting the egregious, multi-million dollar payouts that have been given to executives who’ve committed sexual harassment, we’ve seen first-hand that Alphabet responds when we act collectively.”

In addition to addressing issues similar to the aforementioned major ones, this union also plans to address more common concerns like pay disparity. Before the official announcement, the union had the support of approximately Google employees and contractors. Contractors in particular have lodged numerous complaints about unfair treatment when compared to full-time Google staff, despite the fact that contractors make up the bulk of Google’s workforce.

However, unlike similar unions, this one will not be arranging collective bargaining rights for all employees in the company. Rather, this union is members-only, and will only represent workers who join of their own volition. This particular methodology is being employed so all types of employees, including temps, contractors, and vendors, are able to join. In a traditional union set-up, only full-time employees would be represented.

In response to the announcement, Google’s director of people operations, Kara Silverstein, sent an official response to The Verge. “We’ve always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce. Of course our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees.”