Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2025

Tech Workers Announce Formation of Oracle Workers Union to Defend Rights, Demand Transparency, and Ensure Accountability

Employees at Oracle have announced the formation of the Oracle Workers Union (OWU) — a collective effort to secure transparency, accountability, and a stronger voice for workers across all roles and geographies.

“This isn’t about AI. This is about Oracle making decisions that profoundly impact the lives and families of its dedicated workers behind closed doors, with no transparency or accountability,” said Greg Green, Business Analyst and a 26 year employee of Oracle who was laid off in March 2025 during one of the reorganizations that took place this year. “We are organizing to defend our dignity, our workers’ rights, ensure protections for our jobs, and restore the employee’s voice in this organization.“

Why We Are Organizing

The decision to unionize comes in response to patterns at Oracle that have placed employees at risk and undermined trust:

  • Unstable employment practices: regular reductions in workforce, constant reorganizations without prior communication or planning, no transition planning or internal product lifecycle management, or workload balancing (layoffs and pay transparency issues are directly tied to the $415M restructuring cost Oracle booked in FY25Q1. Employees should especially note the $1.6B line item for total restructure budget for FY26) – see article: Product changes likely as Oracle faces an estimated 10,000 more layoffs by year end (cio.com);
  • Inadequate compensation and benefits: a lack of transparency in pay, withholding of raises, bonuses, and company stock at the same time that senior executives are being promoted while failing to recognize the contributions of its workers. This year there were early announcements from senior management that there would be no focal, no bonus, and only dry promotions – see press release: Oracle Corporation Announces Promotion of Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to CEOs; Safra Catz Appointed Executive Vice Chair of the Board of Directors (oracle.com);
  • Little to no employee representation: ignoring repeated top issues of global voice surveys, the defunding of employee resource groups;
  • Erosion of our workplace voice: executive decisions to provide no communication about organizational change, the removal of internal public forums like #watercooler, changes in termination processes to silence outgoing workers affected by RIFs;
  • Ethical and social accountability: growing concerns about the company’s use of technology, contracts, and political influence – see article Oracle invested millions in government influence before winning a major stake in TikTok (opensecrets.org).

These issues mirror challenges across the tech industry, where workers at companies like Google (Alphabet Workers Union) and Apple (AppleTogether) have also organized to demand transparency, fairness, and dignity at work.

Why it Should Matter to Investors

Worker instability is tied to investor risk. Oracle tech workers are a foundation of knowledge, code and process in the organization, and Oracle intends to replace them with nothing, or bridge the gap by introducing AI. The clear problem is that AI is new technology that requires a regularly updated knowledge base to train on, ongoing maintenance and tuning. AI isn’t autonomous. AI is a tool, and like a hammer it’s useless without someone who can drive a nail with it.

Further, there is a spiraling promise of outlandish returns from investments that are promised on hardware that doesn’t exist. The administrative cost of employees is insignificant to the total billions of CapEx that Oracle seeks in order to deliver its long game. From the investor view this should be concerning – see article: Moody’s flags risk in Oracle’s $300 billion of recently signed AI contracts (reuters.com)

Goals of the Union

The Oracle Workers Union (OWU) is committed to:

  • Securing fair pay, benefits, and cost-of-living protections for all employees
  • Establishing job stability and fair internal mobility opportunities
  • Ensuring transparency in company decision-making, reorganizations, and policy changes
  • Protecting workers from retaliation and advocating for safe, ethical, and inclusive workplaces
  • Building solidarity across all roles and geographies to prevent divide-and-conquer tactics

A Promise to Our Colleagues

We are organizing out of necessity, but also out of hope. Our promise is to pursue improved workers’ rights in good faith, to prioritize discretion and safety for our colleagues, and to ensure that workers’ voices are represented and upheld in decisions that shape our futures.

Next Steps

The union will now begin the process of expanding membership and building worker participation across all departments. Employees who wish to support or learn more can connect confidentially with the organizing committee through secure, private channels.

“This is about recognizing meaningful contribution,” said Green. “We know that we (technology workers) create immense value for business that is ongoing and foundational for continued success. We can’t be replaced by AI. It’s time that our value is recognized, and that we restore a meaningful seat at the table.”

Media Contact:
Greg Green / Oracle Workers Union
oracleworkersunion.org