It's not meaningless, it's a significant next step for AWU. As a deliberate strategy, AWU's focused on unionizing Alphabet TVCs at several small shops for years

It's not meaningless, it's a significant next step for AWU. As a deliberate strategy, AWU's focused on unionizing Alphabet TVCs at several small shops for years now. I think this is partly because small TVC groups are easier to organize than entire PAs, and partly because TVCs are so badly treated compared to full-timers that they're more likely to view unions favorably anyway. (It's hard as hell to organize FTEs for various reasons.) However, as I understand it, one key problem was that Google doesn't need to deal with AWU directly since they could say that the vendor (ie. Cognizant) is the employer. That's apparently changed. If the NLRB rules that Google and the contractor are co-employers, then that could require Google to bargain directly with this unit. That said, the status quo was still a win for workers because AWU could bargain with vendors, but it's not as impactful as it would be if Google were required to bargain with AWU directly. As for what is bargained, AWU's been successful at winning RTO extensions for Google Maps workers, gotten managers to agree to hiring transparency initiatives, won back pay owed by stubborn vendors, and have even gotten some unjust punishments against individual employees reversed. You can see these here: https://alphabetworkersunion.org/power/wins/ https://alphabetworkersunion.org/power/wins/ Typically, companies are required to bargain "in good faith" with unions about issues that affect workers' material working conditions like hours, wages, policies, vacations, layoffs, etc, and the NLRB can impose fines and other consequences upon companies that don't make a good faith effort to do so.