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Kathryn Spiers says Google terminated her after she created a browser tool to notify employees of their organizing rights.
[...] Back in September, Google reached a settlement with the NLRB over earlier alleged violations of federal labor law. Under the settlement, Google was required to post a list of employee rights in its Mountain View headquarters.
[...] So when Google hired a consulting company known for its anti-union work, Spiers wrote a notification that would appear whenever Google employees visited the firm's website. The notification stated that "Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities." That's a legal term of art for worker organizing efforts. It also included a link to the worker rights notification mandated by the NLRB settlement.
[...] Two weeks later, on December 13, Spiers was fired.
[...] The complaint argues that her firing was an "attempt to quell Spiers and other employees from asserting their right to engage in concerted protected activities."
Previous stories:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/12/04/0029250
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/11/26/1411249
Seems like a pattern of abuse to me. Just not necessarily by the employees.
(Score: 2) by TheReaperD on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:31AM (3 children)
We've had one half of the political spectrum beat it into our heads that any big organization is bad (except those that are for-profit; those are good) for over 50 years and should be avoided at all costs, including freedom, pay, rights, security, etc. We also have it codified in law that all unions in the US are one of a duopoly [AFL-CIO & Teamsters] (done intentionally to make them lethargic and prevent competition). Given that anti-union sentiment has bled over to the other major party in the US due to them courting "campaign contributions" (read: bribes) from big businesses and the attitude of the other major party and you have a huge clufterfuck (cockup if the previous word doesn't register). Personal responsibility is all well and good but, if you're one of 120,000 employees, your voice doesn't mean shit.
Google has a huge problem right now because the new management wants to run the company like any other evil corporation but, their workforce is full of people that joined the company when their motto was "Don't be Evil," leading to a huge row between employees and management on a wide range of issues.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:39AM
*clufterfuck = clusterfuck. Times like these, I hate that there's no edit option.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:39PM (1 child)
I'm interested now. Teamsters are part of a trade union coalition called Change to Win Organizing Center [wikipedia.org] (CTW), which broke off from AFL-CIO in 2005. Where in U.S. law are AFL-CIO, CTW, and no other organization recognized as reputable coalitions?
(Score: 2) by TheReaperD on Wednesday January 01 2020, @02:56AM
I'm not a lawyer so I don't know the actual legal code. What I learned the info from was farm workers in California were striking and formed their own private union among a list of things they charged the leader of the workers was forming an illegal union and they reported that the existing unions were the only unions allowed to exist in the US and no new ones can be formed without the existing two backing it. In the end, the charge was dropped when the AFL-CIO agreed to underwrite the farmworkers' union (much to the farm owners' ire).
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit