A group of about 80 contracted Google employees voted to form a union Tuesday afternoon. The workers...voted 49-24 in favor of joining the United Steelworkers Union...They will organize using the name Pittsburgh Association of Tech Professionals.

The analysts are...contractors who work for HCL America...However, they work primarily on Google projects and their workplace is Google's Pittsburgh office. Google has a "shadow" workforce of 135,000 contracted employees in addition to its 115,000 direct employees...

...HCL acknowledged the unionization vote and said in a statement it would respect the workers' decision to join United Steelworkers...

... "We work with lots of partners, many of which have unionized workforces, and many of which don't. As with all our partners, whether HCL's employees unionize or not is between them and their employer. We'll continue to partner with HCL," the [Google] spokesperson said...

...Workers seeking unionization have complained that Google does not offer paid sick leave and hasn't scaled wages to match inflation...HCL reportedly attempted to discourage workers from unionizing in the weeks leading up to the voice...