Remote work has erupted into one of the fiercest battlefields in modern labor relations. Unions representing employees at both private companies and government agencies are waging determined campaigns to keep telework options on the table, rejecting the notion that flexible schedules and location independence are merely perks to be rolled back at will.

From groundbreaking wins at Silicon Valley tech giants to tense standoffs with federal authorities, labor organizations are seizing this moment to redefine how — and where — work gets done.

A prime example of labor’s evolving strategy can be found in the Alphabet Workers Union, which secured a landmark agreement with Accenture, a key Google contractor. Under this contract, Google Help workers are guaranteed the option of fully remote roles, a 30-day notice period for layoffs, six weeks of severance pay, and protection against invasive surveillance tools that track keystrokes or mouse movements.

By extending equal benefits and security provisions to full-time and contingent workers under a “wall-to-wall” union model, the union defies a long-running trend of excluding contract staff from collective bargaining. That inclusivity is central to the broader campaign to protect workers from potential pitfalls of remote work, such as continuous digital surveillance and precarious employment conditions.

These efforts align with a wave of union-negotiated provisions worldwide. The UNI Global Union, which represents service and skills sector unions, compiled a database of 119 collective agreements containing remote work clauses from 25 countries. The findings reveal a global consensus that telework arrangements need robust worker protections. Eighteen percent of these contracts address surveillance explicitly, demanding openness about monitoring methods or else restricting data collection outright.........

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