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NYT: Hundreds of Google Employees Unionize, Culminating Years of Activism

LordRuyn

LordRuyn

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,909
A few select quotes from the article:

OAKLAND, Calif. — More than 225 Google engineers and other workers have formed a union, the group revealed on Monday, capping years of growing activism at one of the world's largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for labor organizers in staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley.
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The new union, called the Alphabet Workers Union after Google's parent company, Alphabet, was organized in secret for the better part of a year and elected its leadership last month. The group is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, a union that represents workers in telecommunications and media in the United States and Canada.
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But unlike a traditional union, which demands that an employer come to the bargaining table to agree on a contract, the Alphabet Workers Union is a so-called minority union that represents a fraction of the company's more than 260,000 full-time employees and contractors. Workers said it was primarily an effort to give structure and longevity to activism at Google, rather than to negotiate for a contract.
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The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents employees in Silicon Valley and cities like Cambridge, Mass., and Seattle, gives protection and resources to workers who join. Those who opt to become members will contribute 1 percent of their total compensation to the union to fund its efforts.
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This particular tidbit also seemed important:
The structure also gives the union the latitude to include Google contractors, who outnumber full-time workers and who would be excluded from a traditional union. Some Google employees have considered establishing a minority or solidarity union for several years, and ride-hailing drivers have formed similar groups.
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Although it does come with a few downsides:
Although they will not be able to negotiate a contract, the Alphabet Workers Union can use other tactics to pressure Google into changing its policies, labor experts said. Minority unions often turn to public pressure campaigns and lobby legislative or regulatory bodies to influence employers.

"We're going to use every tool that we can to use our collective action to protect people who we think are being discriminated against or retaliated against," Mr. Shaw said.
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Google's response as reported in the same NYT article:
In response, Kara Silverstein, Google's director of people operations, said: "We've always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our work force. Of course, our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we've always done, we'll continue engaging directly with all our employees."
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Some more details on the mechanics of such a union and its formation by the Washington Post (owned by Jeff Bezos):
[...]Typically, unions are formed after an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, the agency enforcing U.S. labor law. If the majority of voters choose to join, the NLRB certifies the union to represent the workers and bargain collectively with their employer.

The union at Alphabet is forming without federal ratification, limiting its rights. And Google has signaled its willingness in the past to fight back against such efforts. In December, the NLRB filed a complaint against Google for surveilling and terminating employees, and in 2019, the company hired consultants known for their anti-union efforts.
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Some advantages and disadvantages of minority unions per Wikipedia:
Members-only unionism allows members and organizers to operate under the radar of management, especially in regions rife with anti-union sentiment. It also allows for other activist and organizing models to be tried by a minority local union.

A disadvantage of this model is that businesses may not recognize a minority union as a collective bargaining agent for employees who are members. Strikes and pickets are likely not possible for minority unions, meaning that answers to grievances filed by members rely entirely upon the discretion and timing of management.

The ability of such unions to meet on workplace grounds also relies upon the discretion of management.
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Sources:

Checked with search and couldn't find anything, fire me if old

EDIT: added one more quote I had forgotten (Google's response)
EDIT2: added a quote from a WaPo article on how this kind of union is different from a typical one.
EDIT3: added a quote from Wikipedia on the advantages and disadvantages of such a union
 
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chefbags

chefbags

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,269
That's good. I know it's a bit different with Amazon cause if anyone with that amount of people tried forming a union they'd be fucking fired so fast lol.

I would know considering I've worked in the warehouse for 3 years. They fire people with even an inkling of talks about unions. They'll just fire them out of something that person did that was minor a few weeks ago but somehow now it's just a cause of termination.
 
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LordRuyn

LordRuyn

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Oct 29, 2017
3,909
chefbags said:
That's good. I know it's a bit different with Amazon cause if anyone with that amount of people tried forming a union they'd be fucking fired so fast lol.

I would know considering I've worked in the warehouse for 3 years. They fire people with even an inkling of talks about unions. They'll just fire them out of something that person did that was minor a few weeks ago but somehow now it's just a cause of termination.
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You think Google didn't pull that shit either? Here's an article from Nov. 2019
SAN FRANCISCO — Google on Monday fired four employees who had been active in labor organizing at the company, according to a memo that was seen by The New York Times.

The memo, sent by Google's security and investigations team, told employees that the company had dismissed four employees "for clear and repeated violations of our data security policies." Jenn Kaiser, a Google spokeswoman, confirmed the firings but declined to elaborate.
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Sho_Nuff82

Sho_Nuff82

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Nov 14, 2017
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I see the biggest benefit being the incorporation of contractors. As the article states full time employees aren't exactly starving for new contract terms.
 
Dennis8K

Dennis8K

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Oct 25, 2017
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Nothing reveals quite so efficiently the true nature of big tech companies like their anti-union stance.

No amount of faux-progressive soundbites will erase the truth.
 
Temp_User

Temp_User

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Oct 30, 2017
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giphy-5.gif


. . . . the rest of Silicon Valley be like.
 
Wafflinson

Wafflinson

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Nov 17, 2017
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John Kowalski said:
Finally. Congrats to everyone involved.
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Lets not get too excited.

This is largely symbolic and is more "union" in name only.

Minority Unions are not legally classified as unions and receive none of the legal protections or advantages. It is pretty much up to google on whether or not to take them seriously. They are under no legal obligation to do so.
 
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LordRuyn

LordRuyn

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Oct 29, 2017
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OP has been updated with a quote from a different article from the WaPo on how the formation of such a union is different from a traditional one in the US for more context. The WaPo article I quoted from has been added to the "Sources" section at the bottom of the OP. Another quote has been added which states some of the advantages and disadvantages of such a trade union.
 
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CreepingFear

CreepingFear

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Oct 27, 2017
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I hope they succeed. I work in IT, which while not the same as developing for Google, has pretty much no unions for protection.
 
hidys

hidys

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Oct 26, 2017
1,794
There's power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hand of the worker.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

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Oct 25, 2017
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Boondocks said:
Will we see a strike in the future? Google has been very anti-union.
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Google employees have walked out of work several times the last 5ish years to respond to different events internally and externally. I'm not sure if this group will have that much influence over a general strike at Google because it's so small -- 225 members, out of 250,000 Google employees.

They'll probably be more instrumental in directing social action within Google, and make statements to the press on behalf of some Google employees. This is likely more of a shield to communicate with the press than organize company-wide labor disputes.
 
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LordRuyn

LordRuyn

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Oct 29, 2017
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The Albatross said:
Google employees have walked out of work several times the last 5ish years to respond to different events internally and externally. I'm not sure if this group will have that much influence over a general strike at Google because it's so small -- 225 members, out of 250,000 Google employees.

They'll probably be more instrumental in directing social action within Google, and make statements to the press on behalf of some Google employees. This is likely more of a shield to communicate with the press than organize company-wide labor disputes.
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While the highlighted point is valid, they've only just made the announcement. From what I read, everything was hush-hush for a year to get things sorted so I am guessing not many people knew, it's not like they could advertise considering Google has fired people recently over attempts to unionize. I say give it time and see how many more members they get now that it's public. Google will be under heavy scrutiny on this one so suppressing it outright won't be in their best interest.
 
The Albatross

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LordRuyn said:
While the highlighted point is valid, they've only just made the announcement. From what I read, everything was hush-hush for a year to get things sorted so I am guessing not many people knew, it's not like they could advertise considering Google has fired people recently over attempts to unionize. I say give it time and see how many more members they get now that it's public. Google will be under heavy scrutiny on this one so suppressing it outright won't be in their best interest.
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Yeah that's true.

The timing is good for them too because Google is under investigation for monopolistic behavior, so they're not going to want to generate more eire from the pro-labor left in Congress.
 
djplaeskool

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I like how Google's response is essentially, "California law allows them this pittance. It will not deter us from crushing their miserable rebellion."

Edit: Read as Palpatine for added effect. lol
 
Zip

Zip

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Oct 28, 2017
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As indicated by the Google rep's quote, their move will be to discourage more from joining, ignore the minority union as much as possible, and possibly look for ways to encourage it to die off by finding ways to lay off (key) members.

I hope Google fails. Unions are really important for employee job security and wage protection.
 
Kthulhu

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Wafflinson said:
To be clear. A "members-only" or "minority" union does NOT have the legal protection to strike.

So while a google employee strike could happen, it is unlikely that it would be because of or through this "union".
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As I said they have had multiple strikes prior to the presence of any union. Just because this union lacks protections doesn't mean a strike won't happen. If anything it's an indication it'll happen again.
 
trashbandit

trashbandit

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I'm not familiar with the specific details of running a union, but isn't the right of collective bargaining kind of the main point? Is a union only able to do that if all workers are involved?
 
VariantX

VariantX

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Oct 25, 2017
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Good thing too.

These guys aren't as easily replaceable either like service industry and retail workers so they really have some leverage to do this.
 
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LordRuyn

LordRuyn

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Oct 29, 2017
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trashbandit said:
I'm not familiar with the specific details of running a union, but isn't the right of collective bargaining kind of the main point? Is a union only able to do that if all workers are involved?
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Not quite in this case. This is a Members-only/minority trade union, it does not go through the NLRB and therefore members have different rights. You might want to take a look at the final quote in the OP, it gives more details on this kind of thing. I have to admit, I did not know those details myself, I had to research them for the OP.
 
trashbandit

trashbandit

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Dec 19, 2019
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LordRuyn said:
Not quite in this case. This is a Members-only/minority trade union, it does not go through the NLRB and therefore members have different rights. You might want to take a look at the final quote in the OP, it gives more details on this kind of thing. I have to admit, I did not know those details myself, I had to research them for the OP.
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Really seems like this is more a symbolic gesture than a substantive move towards actual worker protections. I hope the organizers can spin this yarn into something more solid and powerful.
 
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LordRuyn

LordRuyn

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Oct 29, 2017
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trashbandit said:
Really seems like this is more a symbolic gesture than a substantive move towards actual worker protections. I hope the organizers can spin this yarn into something more solid and powerful.
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The more members they manage to get, the stronger their position will be. However, the fact they managed to spin this up and announce it at such a critical time when Google is under investigation for alleged anti-trust infractions, and having already received a reprimand from the pertinent labor authority in the US for trying to quash unionization attempts, works pretty well in their favor. The company is under a microscope and they cannot afford to mishandle this. The union just has to play their cards right from this point on and get as many members as they can.
 
Davidion

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If this triggers a bigger movement, or heck, even conversation within the tech industry about unionization, then it'll have done its job.
 

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You'd think this would have gotten more attention; I feel like it's massive. Alongside Amazon workers planning to unionize, it appears that worker power is trending upwards in some of the most powerful companies in the U.S.
 
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