Google lays off contractors who unionized last month

Around 80 Google Help subcontractors who lately voted to unionize with the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America (AWU-CWA) discovered last week that they are going to be laid off. The group started a listening to this week with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concerning the advanced subject of joint employment for contractors. “It really stinks of retaliation,” Casey Padron, a common author on the staff scheduled to lose her job in August, instructed Engadget immediately.

The group introduced the unionization effort on Thursday, June eighth; round two-thirds of the employees have been notified weeks later concerning the layoffs. The staff consists of writers and graphic designers who create inside and exterior content material for the search big, together with Google Help help pages. They record Google and Accenture as joint employers “due to the direct role both companies play in shaping working conditions.” Because they have been joint contractors employed by tech consultancy Accenture, they don’t seem to take pleasure in protections with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, laws handed in 1988 that gives sure rights for laid-off staff. (California is at the moment contemplating increasing protections for contract staff.)

“Last week we received news that 80 of our nearly 120 recently unionized Google Help coworkers would be laid off,” stated Julia Nagatsu Granstrom, Senior Writer and member of the Alphabet Workers Union- CWA. “We had exercised our right to organize as members of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA in order to bring both Google and Accenture, a Google subcontractor, to the bargaining table to negotiate on several key demands, including layoff protections.” Nagatsu Granstrom describes the layoffs as “absolutely unacceptable,” given the timing of an lively union marketing campaign “with overwhelming support from workers.”

The Google Help cuts comply with a gaggle of firm contractors score search outcomes who have been fired last month after asserting intentions to unionize with the identical group, the AWU-CWA. However, they have been reinstated and promised backpay after submitting Unfair Labor Practice costs with the NLRB.


Henry Nicholls / reuters

Padron says the Google Help layoffs caught her off guard. “I was extremely surprised to hear about our team’s layoffs,” she instructed Engadget. “We are constantly told by Google and Accenture management how impressed they are with the quality of our work, so the timing of these layoffs looks suspiciously like retaliation for our union formation.” She says the employer’s proclaimed motive of price range tightening doesn’t add up. “They claimed that the cuts were a result of changes in budget allocation, but Accenture has also posted job listings that have our exact job description and project code.”

“These giant, wealthy corporations need to start living up to their own ‘core values’ and treating their workers with the dignity, respect, and humanity we deserve,” Padron added. “If these multi-billion dollar corporations can’t afford to provide humane working conditions to their employees, the business model needs radical change. Some of our operations managers and the Googlers we collaborate with have already expressed that Google’s help centers will suffer without our team. They will feel this loss, and they deserve to.”

Nagatsu Granstrom says the unionized staff will take “every recourse possible to support our impacted members and continue to organize workers at Google Help and beyond.” Padron echoes the upbeat, preventing tone. “If it’s Accenture and Google’s goal to demoralize us, they have failed,” she instructed Engadget. “We are more united than ever and will continue to fight for this job that so many of us love and rely on.”