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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: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @01:36AM (49 children)
You had one of the cushiest jobs in the world and you want a union? You misused internal systems. Get stuffed. Hope you like working at McDonalds.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @01:45AM (3 children)
She may have valid grievances. How do you know the sushi chef didn't put too much wasabi on her toro? Or maybe the on-premises dry cleaner chipped a button on her blouse..
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:56AM (2 children)
Fuck Unions. I was a teamster until we voted those assmobster butt pirates out. Guess what? No more union dues and better benefits. If the job sucks... A union isn't going to fix it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:04AM (1 child)
I hear that. My white male privilege gets me way better than organizing. Even the unions agree the present crisis was most definitely caused by the hordes of Muslim Mexican rapist incels.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:05PM
Joking aside, my teamster white male privilege didn't get me anywhere while working alongside women or Mexicans... My skills did. Go ahead and keep marking my posts flamebait or troll. The truth is Unions aren't there to represent workers, they're there to collect dues (work tax). You'll get better benefits without the Union. Workplaces stuck in Unions will treat you like shit and won't negotiate one on one for better working conditions. They will only abide by Union stipulations and not one cent more. You're basically screwed.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @01:46AM (1 child)
She may not like working with an asshole like you.
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:09AM
She will enjoy working at McDonald's right up until she gets fired and replaced by a Google robot.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday December 18 2019, @01:51AM (23 children)
Using an internal system that is supposed to keep employees up to date to actually keep employees up to date. Oh, the HORROR!
Letting employgeeks (see what I did there?) know what their legal rights are when the employer tries to violate employement law? How so not Ayn Rand!!!
The original firing was targeted at people google thought would be the least likely to stand up for their rights because it would mean that 3 of the 4 would be outed as transgender. Talk about outdated thinking. Nobody needs to be ashamed of being trans any more - Google would do better to target consumers of goat porn.
But that's google for you nowadays - always failing to see the broad picture because doing evil is more profitable in the short term.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday December 18 2019, @01:55AM (6 children)
Wasn't she fired for making a pop-up?
Regardless the message, a pop-up is a pop-up
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:10AM (4 children)
Wasn't she fired for making a pop-up?
No, she was fired for not running that pop-up through her manager's approval.
Other sources [engadget.com] suggest the popup is the usual way deploying notifications for Googlers and it was part of her job to make/deploy such popups.
So, here you have it straight from the horse's mouth [medium.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:15AM (3 children)
That doesn't sound like it would be a firing offense for someone who wasn't mouthy in other aspects of his job.
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:22AM (2 children)
In all jobs that I worked, the "three strikes unless unlawful" rule was followed. Even when stepping outside the company's policies, first time was always a warning especially if the blunder has been reversible and with no impact on the company's market.
This one reeks of "make an example of the fuckers".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:31PM
The public might have to wait for the wrongful termination trial to figure out what the employee's other two strikes were, and why they didn't wear off. On YouTube, a video hosting service operated by the same company, a strike wears off after three months of consecutive good behavior.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:45PM
That was also the rule for the Teamsters at the steel mill I worked at.
Anyone who says you can't fire union people is lying. I know, I've done it.
(Score: 5, Touché) by takyon on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:13AM
That's what they claim.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pino P on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:15AM (15 children)
Comments to the corresponding story on the green site [slashdot.org] appear to have come to the following consensus:
Google intended this internal system solely to deliver highly urgent notices related to two subjects, namely information security and user data privacy protection. Even though the notice in question was mandated by the (U.S.) National Labor Relations Board, Google is in the right because the notice was unrelated to those two subjects and therefore should have gone through a different channel.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:25AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:55AM
Depends on the labour laws in US [wikipedia.org] - looks like the case falls in the wrongful dismissal category, "sprinkled" in zillion of places instead of a single coherent law [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:44PM
The operative word is not "should" but "could".
She's claiming that this was insufficient grounds for termination, which means Google "could not" use this as justification for termination. Really hate to side with Google on things, but this seems like completely justifiable termination. I expect the reason they're bringing the lawsuit is because Google will [probably correctly] value the cost of settling out of court as cheaper for a fat paycheck and a gag order as being less than the PR damage of crushing her in court. Think about the Ellen Pao - Kleiner Perkins case. Even though the courts decided she had absolutely no case whatsoever, the media turned her into a hero because it fit a desired narrative that this case also fits. Kleiner Perkins was less sensitive to PR damage than Google is, especially at a time like now where Google's image is already rapidly deteriorating.
Hahaha, I expect the one reason Google might want to take it to court is because otherwise they are pretty seriously creating a how-to guide for retiring before you're 30:
- get hired at google
- go crazy overboard on some social justice crusade
- get fired for behaviors at least tangentially related to #2
- social media it a bunch
- sue
- Aruba, Jamaica ooo I wanna take ya Bermuda, Bahama come on pretty mama Key Largo, Montego baby why don't we go down to Kokomo
Due to hiring for 'Googlism' they now have literally tens of thousands of employees that would very likely be willing to consider going down this path. Poetic justice.
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:47AM
She says [medium.com]
If she can demonstrate that "adding things pertaining to hobbies or interests" happened frequently enough without the posters being fired, Google is screwed in a suit implying unfair dismissal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:44AM (9 children)
I left the green site because (among other things) there were too many pieces of shit posting there.
As such, I don't give a rat's ass what the "consensus" over there might be.
What's more, why should we inject that into *our* discussion?
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:34AM (8 children)
Consensus and/or green site aside, is a PoV one soylenter may hold? If positive, it worth injecting into discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:38AM (7 children)
Consensus and/or green site aside, is a PoV one soylenter may hold? If positive, it worth injecting into discussion.
OP AC here. You make a fair and reasonable point.
That said, using "the consensus from Slashdot" is pretty crappy as an appeal to authority [wikipedia.org] IMHO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:18AM (3 children)
Fuck beta.
(Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Wednesday December 18 2019, @05:03PM (2 children)
Isn't that the motto of incels? Fuck betas?
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @11:40AM (1 child)
There. FTFY. And before you complain, ask yourself this question: "What is 'incel' a portmanteau of?"
(Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Thursday December 19 2019, @06:30PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:25AM
Well, I appreciate anything of value even if surrounded by crap. It is rare in life to find good stuff without the shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:27PM (1 child)
Agreed. But it's also valid to disregard the authority and discuss it as a pure speculation: "Here's a defense Google will probably try if sued for wrongful termination." I was mostly clarifying that I didn't come up with the idea myself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:08PM
Fair enough. I just didn't want to pass up the opportunity to bash the green site.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday December 19 2019, @01:33AM
Demonstrably false. Google allowed users to post about hobbies, etc.
Google is evil. Do try to keep up with all the changes the 21st century has wrought.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:55AM (13 children)
What the fuck is it with you yanks and your fear of unions? You know, in other parts of the world, unions are no big deal. Employers have unions too, you know.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:14AM (2 children)
The US ruling class never made it out of the late 1800s, and it's full of psychopaths.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:28AM (1 child)
And their sycophants haunt online forums.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:26AM
Leave khallow alone!
We are going to form a khallow union, to which only khallows may belong. They will have backhoes for rent, and dream of being wealthy, some day. And they will suck up to rich people, just like real unions, when they go bad. As in Bad Faith.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:31AM (3 children)
Maybe you're not familiar with the differences between union law in the US and elsewhere.
Maybe you're also not familiar with the close link between unions and organised crime in the US.
Possibly you're also not familiar with how unions in the US tend to act as a stranglehold on anything involving personal initiative, whether from the employees or not.
My actual lived experience with unions in the US: they take your money, and spend it on politics of which you may very well not approve. You have no recourse. They are thoroughly mobbed up, to the point of menaces delivered by career criminals - I never saw it go further than that, because I'm not stupid. Their functionaries are untouchable, while regular employees are only as protected as the union feels like (generally not much). The best thing to do in a union shop is to keep your head down and wait for a promotion opportunity when it's your turn ... or leave and go look for promotion elsewhere, where unions don't insert themselves.
There's more, but that should be enough. Every time you ask what they've done for you, they do the same tired song-and-dance about the 40 hour work week and the weekend and all that. When you ask what they've done in the last five years, the sound of crickets is deafening.
I don't like parasites, even when they sing the union songs. Especially when they sing the union songs.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:00AM
It's the same in the UK, that point, alone, is why I quit the last union I was ever in (MSF [wikipedia.org]) after an announcement that, as a union, we were supporting a particularly odious (to me, at least) labour party policy without being balloted on it, I though, WTF is going on here?, and it became increasingly obvious from talking to members from other branches that the union fatcats were not representing the views of the members when it came to political decisions, and they were pissed off with it, but what could you do, eh?, I decided, fuck this for a game of tin soldiers, I'm out.
I can give you an example there of someone being victimised by union (NALGO [wikipedia.org]) functionaries at her place of employment (including a fine wee bit of racial discrimination...she was from South America, the union functionaries doing the discrimination were African..) where it took her husband going to his union's legal attack dogs and siccing them on his wife's union before the 'misunderstandings' stopped. What started it in the first place, you ask?..she had the temerity to start asking where sizeable amounts of council grant money were disappearing to..
Or, how about a member of the GMB [wikipedia.org] being visited at home by a union suit and several union 'heavies' and told to drop any planned actions against 'a union brother²*' who caused the accident which disabled him for the rest of his life?
So, UK unions, not so different under the hood from US ones..
* brother², as the drunken bastard was both a union member and a Mason, and the funny handshake brigade 'ran' most of the shipyard union chapters
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday December 18 2019, @05:05PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @05:06AM
Yeah, as if you get a choice of union.
If you're a pilot, it's pretty much going to be their union. Flight attendant, same. Driver for UPS, the Teamsters, and so on, and so on especially in trades like electricians, plumbers, steelworkers and so on.
If workers had genuine choice about unions, unions would work a hell of a lot harder to appeal to workers. They don't have to, and it shows.
... and people wonder why right-to-work is spreading. (No, I don't live in a right-to-work state, but if offered the chance to vote for it I'd be all in.)
(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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:49PM
They're all run by the mafia, with all the awfulness that goes with that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:24PM
Denmark - 85.8%
Norway - 78.2%
Sweden - 87.1%
USA - 55.7%
Those percents are your answer - voter turnout in recent major elections. You want to know who the biggest party, by a landslide, in the US is? Democrats and republicans each go to war over about 25% of the vote a piece. 45% of the rest of society looks on with bemusement at how broken our system is. The party of political disenfranchisement wins, hard.
The political system in the US is pretty idiotic. Unions introduce politics into the workplace. They then demand money for this, quite a lot of it. And people get to see what unions produce. Public teachers? Police? Post office? Yeah, they have crazy strong unions - and those industries are simply broken: filled with people that need'd to be fired a decade ago, gross ineptitude, broken politics, and a mountain of bureaucrazy for even the slightest issue.
And then there's corruption. Plays into the reasons for the 45%, but it deserves its own section. The average teacher in the US earns around $55k. This [unionfacts.com] is a list of compensation for the US Teacher's union. Want to double or triple your salary and get power over other people? Become a mid-level union bureaucrat! Creates a pretty broken incentive system and also emphasizes that the union and the union leaders quite rapidly end up becoming entirely different groups of people.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:57AM (3 children)
Sounds like you've never dealt with US labor law.
It also sounds like you didn't read the story. She was there to do some certain things, like setting up a gateway to Google's own site. She put, at that gateway, a government mandated notice. It almost looks like she was fired for doing the job that she was hired to do. That's not a terribly big deal, in and of itself, but when the firing infringes on an employees rights under labor law, the company is in a world of shit.
The "dingbat" may well get enough money out of this to open up her own company.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:12AM (2 children)
...and with as large and well-hung a nose she has, it seems like she had the chuzpah to play those idiots into getting into a good enough spot to open her own company.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:29AM
Runaway-Ethanol_Finkled = Scabs
Worst kind of traitors to their fellow working men! Unless, they never actually worked?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:40PM
And we are already into blatant antisemitism.
That didn't take long.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @05:00AM
Heh, this dooders hate of unions beats his hate of gaggle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:07AM (7 children)
Enjoy Hawaiian shirt Friday.
And the flair... don't you want to express yourself?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:19AM (6 children)
Yes, there are 2 ways to parse that sentence.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:58AM
Lefties are never offended by flamboyance, you dummie.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:38AM
Yes, it is. Do you have a problem with that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:28AM (3 children)
It is so hard to tell whether that is supposed to be a joke or cynicism.
Oh, a litmus test! Who would you rather bang, Tucker Carlson or Rachel Maddow?
(Score: 2) by TheReaperD on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:42AM
I'll join with the incels first!
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:56PM (1 child)
Oh, look. Someone who hasn't seen or read the plot of "The Office".
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 18 2019, @03:59PM
My bad, I saw The Office on my Netflix queue the other day. I meant to say "Office Space". Though, I mean, they're both Dystopian Office movies. I mean, Real World, Practical, what to expect in a corporate environment Movies.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:11AM (10 children)
Isn't this enough aristarchus subs for one week?
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @02:21AM (7 children)
aristarchus subs are never enough
What would the S/N editors do if the frantic rejection of aristachus'es subs were to thin out? Or, $DEITY forbid, cease entirely?
Why do you hate them and wish them to lose their entire sense of living and supreme purpose in life?
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:50AM (6 children)
Please do not put questions into a post. Some of us believe everything we read and it is difficult to tell whether your post means we should vote for Democrats or Republicans when you do that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:20AM (2 children)
The answer is quite simple: no!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:26AM (1 child)
Ok, I won't vote for democrats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:52AM
Attaboy. Wanna cigar?
...
You're gonna go far,
You're gonna fly high,
You're never gonna die,
You're gonna make it if you try,
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:34AM (2 children)
Vote Socialist Workers Party. Hard to go wrong there! Of course, your vote may not effect the Inevitable Outcome. [youtube.com]
Of course, inevitably, but really? Trump as Thanos? The firken Bad Guy? Ok, Stephan Miller makes sense now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:21AM (1 child)
Ok, I will vote for Strefan Miller of the socialist workers party.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @05:07PM
The closest you apes have come to sdmitting there is a nazi in the WH
(Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:00AM (1 child)
Aristarchus, arstechnica, I can see where you might be confused.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:37AM
Runaway1856, Runaway1957, James Dean Porsche crash, I see where you might be confused, Boomer!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:46AM
You now see the J1-H1b-Greencard loophole fully exploited.
You think you were hired for your open mind? There are 10,000 non-American programmers applying for this position. What do you bring again, your moral principles? Tell it to you next potential employer.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday December 18 2019, @01:39PM (3 children)
Don't Be Evil, Google.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:04PM
Yeah, that tag line was wrapped in cement and dropped in the middle of the Mariana Trench.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Wednesday December 18 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @09:40PM
KHAAAAAAAAN!