Lots of jealous and uninformed people here are trashing the employees. You do realize what Google does, right? You use their tools, they own you, and you are for sale to the highest bidder.
We are lucky that some of these employees are watching out for us.
20
100,000 employees and every one of them seems to think they're in charge. How naive/entitled can you be?
If you want to build a search engine company with unionized labor, go out and do it. You'll probably fail, but this is America, so it's your right - just like Brin and Page.
5
if you don't like the work the company that employs you takes on, then get another job.
2
If we could count on corporations to be benevolent and prioritize the best interests of their employees, no one would have ever conceived of unions in the first place.
Capitalism may well be the best system to deliver goods and services but it is based on greed and must be tempered by societal pressures and government regulation. Without push back, it is not unlike a game of Monopoly, someone ends up with all the money.
We worship wealth accumulation in this country almost as much as we worship guns. It is high time for a bit more "us" and a little less "me".
19
My employer, a state university, fights unionization by taking positions out of the State Classified system (in which employees can have the union negotiate on their behalf) and making them 'University Staff' (no union rights/involvement). The president of the university and the majority of regents are Republicans, thanks to rural voters who love Republican-generated poverty. I look forward to the day when Republicans and Libertarians here are gone from power.
17
We are currently in a tech bubble. An entire generation of coders have never experienced anything except hundreds of venture backed companies flush with investor cash knocking down their door, regardless of how inefficient or incompetent they are. As a result, many engineers have never felt the need to sit down, shut up, and do their work.
When this bubble pops, many of them will realize that high paying work is not a given. They will realize that, sometimes, you have to be thankful for what you have. When they do, they will finally sit down, shut up, and do their work.
8
Google's management remained a teenage idealistic do your own thing culture for way too long. Work is work. When political activism eats up a chunk of work time because the company provided internal bulletin boards encouraging debate; when unusual expressions of individualism are encouraged even when meeting with clients who have different norms; when everyone who might be tech genius is encouraged to think their opinion re. how to run a multi-billion dollar company equals anyone else's; then the company leadership has screwed up. Took Google quite while to figure this out.
8
@Catherine I totally agree. Now if the employees owned the entire company then it might be different. But they do not. They work for the stockholders. They had no idea how good they had it. You do not bite the hand that feeds you, and they were fed very very well also.
3
The only surprise here is that many people still believe Google is not just another public corporation, an entity which by definition is incorporated precisely to shield individual profit-seeking investors from liability.
Why people have bought their public relations snake oil all along is beyond me. The same for Facebook, Apple, and Twitter. These corporations are no different from Wells Fargo, Smith & Wesson, or Exxon Mobil. You dink the Kool-Aid at your own risk.
16
Whatever happened to "don't be evil"? Yup, money by the dump trucks full, erases all memories of historical utterances to the contrary.
13
Free meals so you can work even longer at the office. Not much of a "perk" if you ask me.
9
Google has had an Orwellian business model with regard to users of its browser and emails so it should be no surprise that the surveillance culture has now turned inward toward employees.
A leadership that sees no problem funding climate change deniers and flouting user privacy will have no problem using the same ethos in dismissing and minimising legitimate employee concerns.
8
Google employees check out the ESC 20. They are a smart good union for management types and professionals in California.
5
Why deal with Google and it’s anti-union behavior.
On the iPhone, go to
Settings > Safari > Search Engine > DuckDuckGo
15
DuckDuckGo. What’s a “google”?
10
People who earn their living off surveillance and mining of consumers and our data are shocked when Google monitors them. That’s pretty naive.
13
Libertarian is an attitude the tech moguls operate under. Too much power for the few to suppress the many who work for them. If these workers don't have enough earnings, healthcare, and pension from their employer —then they have the right to collective bargaining representation by a union. Why are these billionaires afraid to share their wealth with their employees?
No gold watches for these techies!
9
Google employees are possibly the only entity in Silicon Valley whose actions are informed by a moral compass, and exert very real influence. They have pushed back against the culture of abusing female employees and massive payoffs to predators, creating digital tools of repression for China and sharing AI know-how with the Pentagon. They have revealed Google’s secretive and alarming vacuuming of Americans very private and personal medical data.
So naturally they need to be curbed. A moral compass is a threat to sociopathic leadership.
25
So awful to see how purportedly progressive corporations almost always wind up at the same anti-labor place, serving only their boards, stockholders, and upper management. They all say “we’re gonna be different” until, paradoxically, they attain enormous wealth. Just when they have the real opportunity to be “different’, they turn to become exactly the same. Not a strong point for capitalism, is it?
19
@Dagwood
I doubt that there is a business on earth that does not look at controlling the cost of labor. That includes "non-profits".
5
@Daphne Most (all?) non-profits don't have the same profit margin as Google and their ilk.
3
I like the quotes around non-profits. Very appropriate considering they push all their money around without recourse and pay lots of people to do nothing.
More feel good actions by spoiled workers who would never be in and have no need of a union. Are any actual Google employees hourly workers? Highly doubtful. Google management may be looking at who they hire as contractors, temps, through outsourcing. Google's "activist" employees sure seem to have lots of free time on their hands. They can't be that hard to replace. Perhaps with immigrants more willing to work and who understand the difference between what you do in your private life and what you do at work.
5
@Daphne Yeah, way too many spoiled workers at Google. As a stockholder, I'm offended that we don't pay them all by the hour, like the agricultural field hands they are. Maybe Google could look into starting a code school in one Libya's open-air slave markets. Sound practice, I approve.
8
Never heard of Duckduckgo until now, but that's where I'm Duckduckgoing.
11
This will NOT end well for Google.
After years of fostering a participitory workforce, and encouraging them to speak up.. now when the voices are critical of Google.. Google execs want to shut it down. In many ways Google culture was founding on these principles.
Good luck managing workforce attrition and poaching from competing companies in the valley. Good luck getting new employees to interview and join a company that now wants to silence it's employees.
12
My New Year's resolution is to pull the Google needle out of my arm. This only reinforces my efforts to step up the timetable.
15
Excellent, the work place is NOT the place to cram down your activism on others. I encourage people to make action based upon their convictions but the workplace is not the place to instill your secular religious ideologies. We all hate it when Chick-fillet does it, anyone with an ounce of moral integrity will not make this a right/left tribal politic. As to the anti-union bit, great again. Unions we integral when we did not have a litany of legislation at the fed and state level to protect employees. In 2019 the unions are just bullies and extortionists.
20
@Mystery Lits
People say unions aren't needed because laws protect workers but now when unions are weak those laws are under attack.
But I'll tell you what; since unions are a market reaction to a problem if conservatives stopped opposing unions I'd give up all the laws that protect workers and let unions negotiate wages, safety and such and keep government out of it. Allow the market to work. What do you say?
14
@Thomas B I would rather a market of rules than a mob of bullies dictating.
4
The thing we hate is not Chic-fil-a having a political stance or ties, what we hate is the homophobic political stance they have.
History would have looked very kindly on IBM and Mercedes employees refusing to build holocaust aiding technology, and it will look kindly on these employees protesting building servers for ICE and AI for the US military.
The daily process of work is not excused from ethical considerations.
15
So Google is the same as all the other huge corporations. Sad. They fit well in the GOP scheme of anti-union anti-worker action.
9
Aha -- so google is like any other business under all that smiley face marketing? As we suspected. Hopefully that's the last mask off tech.
6
Democracy ends where Capitalism begins. To all Google works, UNIONIZE. It's the best chance you have to stand up to such horrible and anti worker organizations such as IRI Consultants.
20
Google wants to pay execs exorbitant salaries yet squeeze the lesser mortals on the payroll. Google users should switch to Duckduckgo instead.
10
@Roxy
There are no lesser mortals on Googles payroll.
1
Google, I have been a long-time user and a long-time fan. But if you crack down on employee activism, I'll switch search engines fast than you can say "Duck Duck Go."
8
Remember "Don't be Evil"? Seems so long ago doesn't it?
9
So I guess "Don't Be Evil" was just a catchy disposable phrase. Disgusting. Time to stop using Google's products.
10
I have a little story for you about a man named James Damore...
2
Google is watching our comments.
5
@Lagi
I hope so.. because they are completely out of touch with reality with this alleged move.
2
Capitalism 101. Use fear and intimidation to suppress workers' rights and their ability to raise issues that are in the interest of the general public. Most Americans are not aware that the Constitution, especially the First Amendment, largely stops at the door of any workplace. This is wrong and illogical, but yet another form of capitalism's control of public discourse. Talk about the Super Bowl at work and nobody will bother you; talk about unionizing, or that your company is violating the right to privacy, or that it is a major polluter, and you will find yourself fired and blackballed in your industry. Years later, you will get a settlement from the company in which you receive peanuts, and the company denies any wrongdoing. So much for living in the "free world."
14
"Many employees believed that the so-called browser extension, which was first reported by Bloomberg, was a surveillance tool designed to crack down on organizing among workers. The company said at the time that it simply wanted to reduce internal spam and that the tool did not collect personally identifiable information."
Given the company's exemplary track record of transparency and candor in data collection practices, Google employees were of course completely reassured by this statement and reported no further concern about surveillance at work.
10
It wasn't a splashy story outside of silicon valley but Google has gotten in trouble before for conspiring with other tech companies to fix wages. Many more stories have been written about "lavish" tech salaries and perks than about this charge (which ended up in settlement). And those lavish salaries? Pretty much a living wage in San Francisco, these days.
It's just not true to say this is a sea change - tech has only been worker friendly insofar as the highly skilled talent it requires is hard to come by. If/when there's less competition for talent, wages will stall out and the perks will become a thing of the past.
20
@Crumpet Tech workers so often shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to organizing. There is a prevailing attitude that "I'm smarter than the guy next to me," so no need for protections against arbitrary management decisions; my smarts will see me through. Until, of course, an arbitrary management decision sends them out the door.
13
@Crumpet
You are correct about big tech companies in Silicon Valley conspiring to fix wages and also entered into anti-poaching agreements.
AND they got caught.
Notably... one of the major personalities to push this unlawful bahavior was Steve Jobs... and Apple was the tip of the spear on the entire effort in the valley.
4
"Google has hired an anti-union consulting firm to advise management as it deals with widespread worker unrest, including accusations that it has retaliated against organizers of a global walkout and cracked down on dissent inside the company." I remember a time, not too long ago when I thought a futuristic, authoritarian, and dystopian entity would look like Hal 9000, Skynet, or something of the like. But no, I get Google, Apple, and Microsoft. They say history doesn't repeat itself, history rhymes. Here, I'm going to have to agree with that. Google being anti-union is just repeating what monopolies did in the 1800s. It will only lead them to dismemberment.
15
Every single right we have as workers has its origins in union activism. I hope Google employees rebel and form a union or an employee organization. If they don’t, they will find themselves working harder and harder for fewer and fewer crumbs. Only collective action can halt Google’s relentless greed. We need to shore up the middle class in the US, and the only way to accomplish that goal is through the labor movement.
53
Democracy ends at the entrance to the workplace.
22
@Jc
But negotiation doesn't.
5
@Eye by the Sea Or shouldn't, anyway. Most of the time, though, it does.
The Google employees should wise up and unionize ASAP. It’s clear that Google is cracking down on employee activism and dissent and it would be much easier to fight back from an organized position.
33
@E
Unionizing a white collar high tech workforce will achieve nothing.
For one.. they are exempt employees, and as such they lack the kinds of federal protections afforded to unionized employees.
Second, they don't know how, and they certainly do not want to be beholding to the Teamsters or other big union for their interests and protections. All that will do is aggravate the situation and driven Goole farther into the move towards authoritarianism over transparency and discussion.
1
@Chuck you are wrong or just ignorant. There is no reason to involve the Teamsters or any other large union, they can form their own. The pilots belong to their own union, they have no affiliation with ALPA.
There is no minimum of employees to form a collective bargaining unit. Federally protected or not, if a collective of employees at google decide to strike they are unlikely to be replaced by scabs.
I would think a forty hour work week and work protections would be more attractive than free soda, a ping pong table and a 100 hour week.
4
Not so. While supervisors are excluded from collective bargaining units, as exempt executives, other exempt worker (engineers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, professors, etc.) are not.

3
We need to rid ourselves of the notion that tech companies are managed by liberals or somehow have a liberal bent. They are greedy capitalists who are only too happy to pay no taxes and treat their employees and customers with disdain, wherever possible. Some pay decently now because the highly skilled tech labor force isn’t all that large. But given the chance, they would treat their employees no better than Amazon warehouse workers.
94
Exactly. They are as liberal as those wonderful accountants and producers at pro-copywrong Hollywood, which is to say "lolno".
Google in particular already went past its own "creepy line" with Google+, but then advanced the very science of smashing creepy lines to bits when, as a certain article here 11 days ago told it, "Google told the Canadian center that neither image met “the reporting threshold,” but later agreed to remove them."
So if you're not already holding your nose with each search and YouTube view you give 'em—if you still give them any—you're not paying attention.
Search with the Duck instead.
3
Only barely related, but the glorification of "perks" needs to stop. While there are worse companies, "perks" are just ways to demand excessive hours. "Oh free food? nice. Daycare you say? ahh. Wait why does my cubicle have this bed?"
40
@K
Correct. The perks system that Google is famous for is largely designed to keep the employee on the campus.. working long hours for the company.
On the flip side though... Goole hires and pays new grads at the very top of the valleys pay and benefits... before perks are even considered.
I do however think that, like all tech companies who rely on hefte perks to attract and retain employees, what is unstated here by Googles move is Google likely sees the perks system as too expensive in the long run and will look for ways to dial it back over time.. as a cost cutting measure.
3
Imagine the outrage if a Google “official,” or as often known, “management,” had set up email alerts to track the calendar of a Google employee. They would certainly not be comfortable, to say nothing of feeling safe.
11
Really, what are they afraid of? Unions are what brought the middle class to live here in the US. The nature of industry has changed from manufacturing things, to manufacturing data (and I'll leave that open to discussion). But no matter it's the business of the US at the present time.
Yes some unions can be corrupt and we have to deal with that to, but the total power of GOOGLE, FACEBOOK and others make it imperative that there are enough numbers to make changes when necessary.
And today's administration is gutting the very bureaus that ensure the safety of the environment, workers rights, voting and more. So where else, who else really are you going to get something done? The courts are being packed with similar conservative anti-worker and anti citizen voter rights.
E Pluribus Unum
47
@Rick Tornello
You misunderstand. There are no signs that Google employees want to unionize. Google simply chose to hire an anti-union consultant firm... because clearly Google wants more control over their workforces actions and anti-union consultants are experts in that regard.
@Chuck and my comments still stand. The title is "...cracking down on employee activism" is the key. I have had experiences on both sides of this fence.
1
In it's attitudes toward honest competition and workers, Google (and Amazon) are really no different that the likes of Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and all the other 19th Century Robber Barons!
"Malefactors of great wealth," to use TR's term, a term all-too-applicable to Google, Amazon, Uber, etc, etc..
60
It is inevitable that a company Google's size cannot have a free-for-all when it comes to employee-manager relations. Companies that size need to create channels that empower employees to speak up, and that require management to take their concerns seriously. Management must be trained in the art of listening, sensitivity, and the softer skills that don't necessarily come from a technical education. IBM, in its formative years, practiced this well, albeit of late isn't as distinguished.
24
@Ken L
I worked at several companies, somehow managing to avoid successive waves of layoffs. After each "streamlining", with morale low and a sullen, anxious workforce, enter the slick consultants! The game plan was always the same: force the wage earners to go through a humiliating series of exercises, including
ridiculous role-playing, fill out surveys that would ultimately end up in someone's 'delete' file, without ever addressing the elephant in the room, and then in a few months, present their findings. Invariably, the sullenness was due to "poor communication" between management and labor, which would aggressively addressed - some day. No mention of the fact that everyone had seen a friend forced to carry out their belongings in a box. Rinse and repeat.
The only people who benefit from these endeavors are the consultants, who somehow manage to live with themselves with a hefty fee as their salve, and management, remaining safe in their cocoons.
3
Having been both an employer and employee: If you disagree with your employer's views that do not directly impact your employment, bring them to the attention of the employer, and are then unsatisfied with their response, you have two options: Live with it, or quit.
Now, that does not apply to activities protected by law, such as participating in a drive for unionization. But it definitely applies to the employer's relationships with its customers and its providers, to the company's relationship with authorities, its hiring practices, its defense against those that attack it -- or its political stand, on any topic. Indeed: The company can even challenge attempts at unionization providing its actions are not prohibited by law.
Sexual harassment claims should be made to law authorities. The company is not obliged to -- and shouldn't -- engage in investigation and action, becoming judge, jury, and executioner, but rather should cooperate with law enforcement, providing access to records of prior complaints, actions by all parties even tangentially involved -- i.e., full openness with anything pertinent to the complaint.
Organizing protests because the company didn’t itself take on an investigation is not acceptable, and being fired for doing so is fully justified.
15
@Austin Liberal 100 years of workers' rights out the window, I guess?
18
@Austin Liberal ; very good argument why we need stronger unions and more unions. Or co-ops. But blocking those possibilities is the 800 # gorilla in the room: the lack of protection for workers seeking to unionize. Since we have been on both sides of the equation, we know that workers seeking to unionize or gain any rights in the workplace are like lambs being led to the slaughterhouse. Almost all employees are "at will" meaning they can be fired for ANY reason (that isn't discriminatory).There is little to no legal protection for these workers and until that changes, the playing field is completely and unfairly slanted in favor of the employer.
13
@Austin Liberal
[Re sexual harassment,] "The company is not obliged to -- and shouldn't -- engage in investigation and action..."
This is not a correct representation of United States law. Relevantly:
https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/harassment.html
https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/harassment-facts.html
Excerpts of note:
[To avoid/limit liability, the employer needs to show that...] "the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any harassing behavior..."
"If the business conducts a prompt, thorough, and impartial *investigation* of any complaint that arises and undertakes swift and appropriate *corrective action,* it will have fulfilled its responsibility to 'effectively prevent and correct harassment.'"
Emphasis mine. The company is explicitly obliged to do exactly what you say it is not obliged to do: engage in a) investigation and then b) action.
You follow on your point to say that pressuring the company to investigate and act is "not acceptable" and firing employees for so doing is "fully justified," but since the legal obligation of the company is not as you described it (and in fact the opposite of what you described), this holds no water.
5
"Don't be evil." No wonder Google had to get rid of their erstwhile motto.
105
Union vulnerability assessments. Wow.
Google used to put a lot of effort into trying to not look evil. Is that whole charade out the window now?
80
@Locho It is just Google's 21st century version of goons with baseball bats attempting to prevent unionization.
9
It’s very turn of the century.
4
I'm unsurprised that the tech anti-union efforts are coming into play finally; I just hope that people are willing to unionize.
Apparently free kombucha in exchange for a lack of work-life balance doesn't feel like a fair trade after a while.
93
@db
FYI ; Having been a former Union member myself ... in reality they almost create more problems than they solve .. BUT !!! .....in this current age of Anarcho - Capitalism and Ayn Randian ideology they have become more of a necessary evil than ever before ... including the height of the union busting late 1800's early 1900's .
So yes good people .. for all of Labor Unions inherit ills ... JOIN or create your local union NOW ... before its too late and we're all reduced to a system of outright indentured servitude
15