Is there a need for a Tech workers' union? This is the question many are asking now that lakhs of tech workers have been laid off by different companies in recent months.

Author and designer Dan Saffer has put out figures giving the number of workers who have been laid off by companies like Google since last year. Here are the numbers:

Google: 12000

Microsoft: 10000

Amazon: 18000

Meta: 11000

Twitter: 4000

Salesforce: 8000

"More than 200,000 have been laid off in the tech industry since the beginning of 2022," he wrote.

But what do companies do when they realize the size of the workforce is over and above what is needed? "There is a way to deal with that organically: stop hiring and reorganize to focus people on value creation. All of these companies like Google are profitable," Dan says.

A Netizen analyzes the reason behind the layoffs in the West, especially in the US. "Despite Covid-19, tech companies saw pretty crazy growth in 2020/21, and so they set lofty revenue goals and created budgets and hiring initiatives to support it. Now with inflation, the FED hiking rates, and the volatile market - growth is slowing and the companies are adjusting to it," he says.

Of course, it must be realized that the context of the above is purely American in nature and doesn't apply to India. But it might well be a matter of time before Indian media too starts raising the issue of unionization.