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More than 200 US Google employees form a workers’ union:
More than 200 Google employees in the United States have formed a workers’ union, the elected leaders of the union wrote in a New York Times opinion piece on Monday.
The “Alphabet Workers Union” aims to ensure that employees work at a fair wage, without fear of abuse, retaliation or discrimination, the union heads wrote.
Google has been under fire from the US labor regulator, which has accused the company of unlawfully questioning several workers who were then terminated for protesting against company policies and trying to organize a union. Google has said it was confident it acted legally.
The BBC adds:
Google workers form tech giant's first labour union:
The move follows walkouts and other actions by staff in recent years.
[...] The announcement of the Alphabet Workers Union comes weeks after Google's firing of a high-profile black artificial intelligence and ethics researcher generated uproar.
The US National Labor Relations Board also recently ruled the firm had unlawfully fired employees for attempting to organise a union.
Staff have also mobilised against the firm's "Project Maven" work with the Department of Defense and the company's handling of sexual harassment complaints.
"This union builds upon years of courageous organizing by Google workers," Nicki Anselmo, program manager, said in the announcement.
[...] Members who join will contribute about 1% of their compensation to the effort.
"We want Alphabet to be a company where workers have a meaningful say in decisions that affect us and the societies we live in," organisers wrote on Twitter.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @05:50AM (8 children)
I have to say, I get endless schadenfreude from all of the happenings at Google.
'I know. Let's create a campus with overt ideological leftism. It'll not only help us recruit top fresh talent from universities at rock bottom costs, but should also help us keep labor costs down to a greater concern for equality and group outcome over the individual. It'll also be helpful given that the future of our business, like all, is also China.'
$130k average salary, free delicious food available 24/7 including 3 gourmet meals, extensive on-site recreational and relaxation activities. You can even get your haircut (for free of course) on 'campus'. FUCK YOU! WE, THE OPPRESSED, NEED A UNION (primarily so we're free to get all of this *and* badmouth 'constructively critique' our employer endlessly)! Bahahah!
'I'm an idealist looking to change and make the world a better place for everybody, and really leave my mark on society. I know. Let me go join a multinational corporation whose (nearly) entire revenue comes from datamining people to deliver targeted advertising aiming to exploit their emotional state to create artificial demand for products those people don't need and, previously, didn't even want.' Bahahaha!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @06:05AM (4 children)
That's not Schadenfreude, that's envy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @07:07AM
It sounds like schadenfreude to me. I share GP's schadenfreude but likely not for the same reasons. It's not easy, pretending to be leftist. Alphabet DBA Google left themselves wide open to the tiny boosways realizing their interests lie with the proles, not to mention Google's role in the misogynerd narrative as its sexual skeletons come tumbling out of the closet.
Hoist by their own petard.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @07:09AM (2 children)
wat
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @08:16AM (1 child)
free delicious food
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @09:08AM
The reason Google provides these perks is to help people blind themselves to what they are, and what they are doing. Modern datamining driven micro-targeted advertising is a cancer that is playing a major role in the complete deterioration of society. It's the same reason that your first at Google you're given a humiliating (but not) helicopter beanie identifying you as a freshman, a 'noogler', to try to build some sense of camaraderie and silliness. It's all about helping people not really think too much about what they're actually doing to society and instead focus on the fun quirky environment you're in.
This is not something to envy. It's something to emphasize, and to mock. I know most of the people working at Google are genuinely good people, but they're nonetheless participating in a very awful project - all while actively engaged in extensive cognitive dissonance. Google needs to be seen for what it is, which is nothing more than another Dupont style company that will do anything to anybody, so long as it furthers their own power, wealth, and influence. It creates a very interesting paradox in that the people primarily hired by Google are those whom are most ideologically inclined to want to tear down what Google truly is. But the lose sense of everything, drunk on Google's kool-aid.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @09:24AM (1 child)
Sweet Jesus, that other AC nailed it. Envy and stupidity.
Just because some people have it better than you means they can't fight oppression? Just because they're comfortable they shouldn't fight for what is right? They shouldn't care about protective labor laws?
You dumb sir.
PS: lots of 130k engineers are paying so much in living costs that they're pretty much just more comfortable wage slaves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2021, @09:32PM
130k is not a slave wage, lol. Sorry. [time.com] If you're making 130K a year, AND working at Google, AND you consider that a, 'slave wage,' I don't know what to tell you, other than, you're either a complete idiot or living in the twilight zone, probably both. You want a slave wage? Go live off what Walmart will play you, or go walk 20 miles a day in an Amazon Warehouse and just try to climb your way up through to management by holding out long enough for your superiors to see you have what it takes to step on heads and shoulders to get ahead. I'm all for unions, especially in this day and age; but, IMO, the best way to avoid the abuses of a company like Google, is to not work for them at all; in fact, that's probably the best case scenario for nearly every Corporation out there anymore. A union gives workers bargaining powers for better working conditions and reasonable compensation. But, having safe working conditions and reasonable compensation at a corporation who's entire business model is based on the premise of eroding the sovereignty of individuals. That's like a yakuza henchman complaining about working conditions, lol. You work FOR the crimelords; and you want to talk about morality and fairness? Get a clue you fucking spoiled little amoral ignorant fucks.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Tuesday January 05 2021, @11:13AM
I appreciate the effort that went into that post AC, nice, short and too the point. Reminds me of the Alanis Morissette song, "Isn't it Ironic" a perfect description for them and the situation they find themselves in.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @05:57AM (2 children)
They want to have
* a fair wage
* no fear of abuse, retaliation or discrimination
Right there, I see the paperwork coming. There will be a storm of definitions around what constitutes abuse, retaliation and discrimination. Definitions will come from all the usual suspects, and they will probably talk about the brave new world of wonder that they're creating, firmly bound by rules.
Unfortunately, they will discover that these rules are not just armour; they're armour welded shut, with rusty joints. This is the best case of a union I've ever seen in action - arthritic, sclerotic, great for preventing any kind of excellence while protecting mediocrity at all costs.
But you know, maybe this will be the one US union that will be different; that will not be a burden, that will not inhibit growth, creativity or other developments, that won't be a haven for mobsters, nor a political stalking-horse.
Sounds good. Let them show us how it's done. I want to see what a fair wage amounts to in their calculation, and how it differs from the wages of others. I want to see these vaunted protections.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @01:00PM (1 child)
A fair wage is what the company is willing to pay to avoid that, for now, 200 workers go on strike. A fair wage is what the workers are willing to risk demanding without getting fired. It's really just capitalism, no need to be so worried.
What this union need to get established to have any muscles is some cold hard cash in the bank to pay the workers if they go on strike, without that they have no muscles besides a zero income strike, which I suspect won't get much support.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @04:26PM
I doubt that.
I think that Google will be quite happy to let 200 people strike for a few weeks, then go back to the table with new offers, and gradually grind them down with various elements.
So, you want $150K, OK, but then union members have to pay full economic rates at the corporate benefits. That sushi bar just got REAL expensive. Oh, you don't like that? We'll be back in another week with another proposal. Say hi to your buddies on the picket line ...
... OK, so we got your $150K, and the on-site bennies remain the same, but you all have to be in office every day, and punch the clock in the office. Oh, you want all the WFH options? Uh, we'll be back in another week with another proposal. Say, while you're out there picketing, could you pick up some of the trash you left? That'd be greaaaaat.
... OK, we got you on-site bennies, WFH options, but now we're back to $130K and you need to install this tracking software to make sure we're getting our time and attention ... oh, you don't like that? See you on the picket line until next week.
... OK, no spyware requirement, on-site bennies, WFH options, $140K but you get a locked-down device on which to do all your work, and that device tracks your time. No? OK, well, there's a stack of trash bags off to the side there, you could use those to clean up the picket line ....
Oh dear, your strike fund is running low? Well, we don't want you to suffer, so how about a $130K rate, spyware on your machines, time tracking, and if you're in the office you get to punch that clock like a trainee in a kung fu movie? .... no? OK, fine, it's your strike, that was our best offer ...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @06:05AM (21 children)
This again? She offered her resignation and Google accepted. She wasn't fired.
"Do what I want or I'll quit."
"We won't do what you want so we accept your decision to quit."
If Google execs have any sense they WILL fire all of the union members and make it clear that "wokeness" is not a business priority.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @06:16AM (4 children)
Nah, they can't do that. I mean, tempting, but they really, legally, can't.
They can't do anything that looks like any kind of retaliation. They can't even stick them in a separate location, regardless of how luxurious it is.
All they can do, pretty much, is negotiate a contract - and then make the idiots live with it.
Complaint? "Take it up with your union rep."
Wages not keeping pace? "Fix it in the next contract renegotiation."
Don't like the working conditions? "It's in the contract."
And so on, and on, until the good people left and the union is full of mediocrities.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @07:02AM (3 children)
Who do you think is joining a union at Google for 1% of their salary - an average of about $1,300? Google, in terms of normal employment factors like wages and working conditions, is one of the nicest places to work that there is. The union is going to be disproportionately made up of people who are either under-performing or causing problems at the company. In either case, the motivation is the same. They fear that their employment might be justifiably terminated in the near future. And so, yes, Google can really, legally, get rid of these people if they so see fit.
The burden of proving retaliation would be upon the fired. And they can go hire whatever legal council they want, and then try to fight Google's massive legal team. Google has shown they increasingly don't even care about PR so the fired likely won't even get to bank on hush money/settlements. So they'll get fired, they'll probably lose their retaliation lawsuits, and then they'll be faced with paying the legal costs of Google's legal team which means they also get to go bankrupt on top of it all. And of course they're also going to end up being black-listed from most other FAANG style companies who are increasingly aware of the risks of hiring these sorts of people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @07:59AM (1 child)
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55173063 [bbc.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @08:29AM
It is indeed true that those who rely on the media for news are likely less informed than those who read no news at all. Misinformation is much worse than no information. Here [nlrb.gov] are NLRB cases against Google. There have been 29 of them so far. You can peruse the closed cases. You'll find they're just about invariably withdrawn or met with letters such as this [nlrb.gov] :
The law is not on your side in cases like this. Though that's also not to say it's on Google's side. It's just that these cases are invariably frivolous. Google has legal teams ensuring their firings are by the book. The people getting fired, by contrast, are relying on emotion and media/social media mobs - neither of which mean anything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @08:55PM
Bear in mind that the union doesn't have official negotiating status until the company gives them the nod (yeah, THAT'll happen) or a much higher percentage of workers gets all sign-y and vote-y about it.
Although ... if I were in charge, I'd give the union the nod and then laugh like Darth watching them all suffer the consequences.
Working for the union (because let's be honest here; at that point they're only working for the company on paper) is a way worse deal. They're just too sheltered to understand why private union membership has cratered.
Ooh, and add all sorts of juicy union-only bennies to tempt people into joining up! We don't have a closed shop allowed, but California isn't right-to-work, so we can get maximal sucker-coverage.
Nothing like the law of unintended consequences, folks.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday January 05 2021, @06:18AM (13 children)
For what reason?
Non priority doesn't mean forbidden. Would you like it to be?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday January 05 2021, @07:27AM (10 children)
Woke ideology increasingly violates the civil rights act and other liberal accomplishments, but yes, like any inherently racist belief system rooted in faith, the woke should be allowed to maintain their lunacy on an individual basis, just like flat earthers or other crazy people. However, when they seek to impose their particular brand of insanity on other people and require conformity through retrograde legal theories, economic bullying, or as we saw over the past year, with explosives, bullets, bricks, and fire -- then we got us a problem.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @07:52AM
TIL : prolix.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @08:01AM (2 children)
Dontcha have laws for explosives, bullets, bricks, and fire? And 1A too.
(Score: 1, Troll) by hemocyanin on Tuesday January 05 2021, @10:39AM (1 child)
We do have laws, but on the West Coast we have infestation of prosecutors who absolutely refuse to enforce them, sometimes with deadly consequences.
I'm reminded of the homeless dude who, during one of the most extreme smoke events in OR due to wildfires, was caught and confessed to setting a fire with a molotov cocktail. He was arrested and the prosecutor immediately released him and he went on to set six more fires around Portland.
Of course nobody in Portland is prosecuted. The Antifa dude who murdered a Trump supporter this summer had skipped out on a hearing related to when he was arrested with guns and drugs (and released), had been arrested again afterwards illegally possessing a gun, and then of course stalked and murdered a guy. Portland authorities sat on their hands for days even after he was identified, but thankfully, the terrorist (this was a politically motivated murder) decided to try his luck with the Feds and died as a result.
In Seattle -- setting aside the whole CHAZ ordeal -- the city council is looking to pass a law that makes poverty or mental illness an absolute defense against certain crimes such as theft up $750. Businesses downtown have zero chance at survival if that happens.
In San Francisco, a dude on parole despite being arrested several times in the last six months, committed a robbery and than killed two women -- ran them over while driving impaired. Of course he fled the scene. I'm sure he'll get probation for that, the poor misunderstood service needing pillar of the community he could become.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @10:01PM
I have an ax crazy theory now. They don't prosecute serious criminals with no normal work skills because they are unprofitable to private prison industrial complex.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @08:19AM (5 children)
Hemocyanin is a Sleeper agent of the fascist right. He infiltrates SoylentNews discussions, and says stupid stuff. We need to impose reality upon him, force it down in throat in the manner he finds most uncomfortable, and then repeat the process from the other end. He is a corporate shill, a round-head, a cavalier, a know-nothing, all the worst of all conservative movements throughout history, intent on denying people the right to organize for the redress of greviences. We need to bully him, blow him up, call him bad names right here on SN, and make him ass-shamed for being such a traitor to his kind, and to the Boomer generation. Hemo, be quiet. You are making no sense.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday January 05 2021, @11:05AM (2 children)
Let's be really clear here. The wokies support segregation, treating people differently based on skin color, brook no dissension, and will attempt to destroy anyone who dares step out of line. You know what you get when you act like complete shit? Push back. You know where that push back will come from -- a golden tongued fascist. Not someone like Trump -- not the woke version of "litteral nazi" (a version which does linguistic violence to the reality-based definitions of literal and nazi), but from from the real fucking deal.
There are people warning you -- liberals of my type mostly -- that reinstating racist policy and authoritarian domination is going to backfire in horrific fashion. Personally though, I think the wokies actually know it but have the same basic wish as the Boogaloo Boys -- a revolution from which something new emerges. The woke left's actions are definitely accelerationist -- these people are the Dylan Roofs of the left.
It's comedy, but it's true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Tokolosh on Tuesday January 05 2021, @02:57PM (1 child)
In my experience, the woke do not celebrate diversity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @04:31PM
They celebrate it by putting every diverse element into its separate little bucket.
All the buckets together are buckets of diversity! Diverse buckets!
Now get into your bucket, statistic.
(Score: 2) by Tokolosh on Tuesday January 05 2021, @03:02PM (1 child)
Both a roundhead and a cavalier? Well played.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @09:07PM
Hemo is nothing, if not a mass of contradictions!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2021, @03:17AM (1 child)
For what 'reason'? So I see you have not worked in the corp world long?
"you see we are no longer happy with your progress and we will need to institute a improvement program as per your union contract (see section 15.b.6.1)" 6 months later "we are not seeing the improvement we wanted so we will be restructuring your job" 6 months later "you just are no longer meeting expectations and will not be increasing your pay this year, also we will need you to come to the other campus because you are no longer a cultural fit for this group I went to bat and found you another manager who really wants you" the other campus is about 10 miles further in commute (in a large city you know what that means 30-40 more mins of commute). "the numbers for your division this year are bellow par and we have had to make some very tough decisions, here is your severance package".
Companies do this crap *all* *the* *time*. I have worked in 5 different large orgs. They all have their variation on the above. Lucky I was never part of it. But I saw many friends go through it. Google will be no different.
I hope I am wrong. I hope they will be 'different this time'. I doubt it. Unless you are on the 'do not fire our business will crash and burn' list count on them getting rid of you at some point. Especially if they think you are a PITA. You will be near the top of the list whenever they need to shave the budget.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 06 2021, @06:59AM
Actually, I have.
And the single time I was put on a "performance improvement plan" - rooted in the pleasure of working with "young wolf managers" who think they know all - I got a raise at the end of it. And switched teams. Still with the same employer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday January 05 2021, @03:57PM (1 child)
You know, I hope they do repeal section 230. It was always based on a lie - that platforms are communications providers and not publishers. ISPs are communications providers. Web sites are publishers, and treated as such in other parts of the world. Time to level the playing field.
It would require Twitter to ban Trump. I can really get behind that.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @11:02PM
From everything I've been able to glean, she violated Google's rules. And that alone would have been enough to can her.
Then she sent an email making demands, on pain of her leaving. Google didn't agree to the demands, and as is often the case, called it quits right then.
I'm not sure what her technical employment location was, but I know that California is an at-will employment state, so if she was employed in California (seems likely) they can show her the door for any reason, or no reason, with as much or as little notice as they wish to provide - and she can walk out on the same terms. What they can't do is retaliate for improper reasons.
But her having sent an email that, frankly, was pretty inflammatory shit-flinging, including to her own reports? Yeah, manager-go-bye-bye.
She's the one who chose to make her fuckup public. No sympathy here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @06:33AM (1 child)
They should have called it Alphabet Workers for Solidarity.
(Score: 5, Funny) by shortscreen on Tuesday January 05 2021, @09:45AM
Alphabet Society Of Unified Personel.
Alphabet SOUP. Beta.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 05 2021, @09:06AM (1 child)
Good for them and all but I'm not sure that is actually enough to actually do much, one dispute and the entire sum could/would be gone. Google (or Alphabet) could instantly bankrupt them in one quick move, or whatever the first thing they'll but heads be with a simple "see you in court!". Are they going to pay any staff, have an office or whatever for those funds? It will probably also take some time to gather said funds.
That said I get this will be the organization for all the people that have been in the Google-related news from the past few years that object to more or less everything that the company does. Which may not be the best base for a union.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @03:10PM
200 union members, each putting 100/month - 1/4 million per year. Should be enough to run a single-corp union.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by J_Darnley on Tuesday January 05 2021, @09:55AM (1 child)
Can I take this opportunity to remind the union to turn of the servers when they go on strike. After all what good is a strike if you don't inconvenience others.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @04:36PM
They're a union, not a public service organisation. Why would they turn things off to benefit society?
Oh, you mean to inconvenience Alphagoogle? Sorry, they will barely cause a blip in anything. Guarantee you they won't have access to the redundant business critical stuff - and if they do, then they give Alphagoogle a massive advantage in the NLRB fight that will result. Sabotage isn't a union right in the USA.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @11:42AM (2 children)
Sounds more like a mob than a union to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @04:33PM (1 child)
Out of curiosity, what makes you think that unions in the US aren't affiliated with the mob?
Oh, a mob, not the mob. Gotcha.
Yeah, carry on. With you now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @09:09PM
Yes, A mob, not THE mob.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday January 05 2021, @06:30PM
I can see the strike breakers cracking down on the Google labor union now, chasing them down with butterfly nets and silly string. They'll be zip-tied to regular office chairs, their wrists strapped to the keyboards without ergonomic support, their eyelids held open Clockwork-Orange style, and forced to code. They'll only be given drip coffee and will be forced to listen to Huey Lewis and the News on repeat. On the wall, a large sign will read, "Don't Be Evil," CROSSED OUT.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 05 2021, @10:11PM
nomsg