Google illegally refusing to bargain with employee union, says NLRB
- Reference: 1704403808
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/04/google_illegally_refusing_to_bargain/
- Source link:
A three-judge NLRB panel reached that conclusion in a [1]case between Google and a group of contract staffers working with Google's YouTube team who were hired through staffing firm Cognizant.
Cognizant contractors on the YouTube team voted to join the Alphabet Workers Union-Communication Workers of America (AWU-CWA) last April. Shortly after, the AWU accused Google and Cognizant of refusing to bargain with it on behalf of the YouTube contract workers.
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According to the NLRB panel, Google openly admits to refusing to bargain with the Union because it, along with Cognizant "contest the validity of the union's certification" based on the pair's position "that Cognizant and Google are not joint employers."
[3]
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The NLRB has concluded otherwise that "Cognizant and Google have codetermined the essential terms and conditions of employment [for the YouTube team] and have been joint employers" at all material times.
"By failing and refusing … to recognize and bargain with the Union [Google and Cognizant] have engaged in unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of Section 8(a)(5) and (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the [National Labor Relations] [5]Act ," the three-judge panel decided.
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Google, however, stands fast to the position that those Cognizant employees might work at Google, but not for it.
[7]Google cut contractors off from online 'Share My Salary' spreadsheet, union claims
[8]Techies start growing an Alphabet-wide labor union: 200-plus sign up, only tens of thousands more to go
[9]Don't Be Evil, a gaggle of Googlers tell CEO Pichai amid mega layoffs
[10]Google datacenter contractors claim 'retaliation' for talking workers' rights
"As we've said before, we have no objection to these Cognizant employees electing to form a union," Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini told The Register . "We simply believe it's only appropriate for Cognizant, as their employer, to engage in collective bargaining."
"We're appealing the NLRB's joint employer decision to federal court as Google does not control the employment terms or conditions of these Cognizant workers," Mencini added.
If Google refuses to comply with the NLRB order the board won't have much way to penalize it, at least not for now. Per the judges, a "compensatory remedy" was requested, but the board severed the issue for future consideration since fining Google for its actions would require reviewing prior case law and "outlining a methodological framework for calculating such a remedy."
In other words, we'll figure it out if and when we have to.
How many times must you be told?
If this entire situation sounds similar, that's because it's practically a point-for-point repeat of another situation Google found itself in last year.
In that instance, a group of Google contract employees hired through Accenture and working to train Bard were allegedly fired after attempting to unionize, but remaining team members went through and won their vote to join the AWU-CWA in November. Mencini had a largely identical script prepared for us when we spoke after the NLRB decided Google and Accenture were joint employers despite Google's claims to the contrary.
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"We have no objection to these Accenture workers electing to form a union. We've long had many contracts with unionized suppliers," Mencini told us last year. "However, as we made clear in our active appeal to the NLRB, we are not a joint employer as we simply do not control their employment terms or working conditions."
The Accenture appeal is ongoing. Google was [12]told last year that it and Cognizant met the terms of joint employment, but its latest appeal means the matter is headed for the federal court system. There, the matter could have wide-ranging implications for the future of contract labor law. ®
Update to add
“Once again, the National Labor Relations Board has found Alphabet guilty of breaking labor law and infringing on our rights as workers to freely organize and bargain for fair working conditions," Katie-Marie Marschner, subject matter expert at YouTube Music and member of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, told The Register .
"After a unanimous union election victory, and consistent rulings from the NLRB determining that Alphabet significantly shapes our working conditions and is in fact our employer, the company has refused to meet us at the bargaining table. Google and Cognizant have proceeded to make unilateral changes to our working conditions such as a forced return to office, removal of sick pay during a global pandemic, and the implementation of a 'Clean Room' policy that bars us from having our phones, paper, or pens in our office, without bargaining with our union.
"Any future appeals by Alphabet are just an attempt to avoid collectively bargaining with the union and pad the pockets of shareholders and executives. Alphabet and Cognizant are our joint employers and we, as employees of one of the largest corporations in the world, deserve to earn something above poverty wages."
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.nlrb.gov/case/16-CA-326027
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZZc4m3@9QQDde10zCjysGAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZc4m3@9QQDde10zCjysGAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZZc4m3@9QQDde10zCjysGAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.nlrb.gov/guidance/key-reference-materials/national-labor-relations-act
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZc4m3@9QQDde10zCjysGAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/04/google_nlrb_complaint/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/05/google_union_plan/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/20/dont_be_evil_a_gaggle/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/13/google_datacenter_contract_workers_nlrb/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZZc4m3@9QQDde10zCjysGAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4583ae2264
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Oh bullshit
Google is directing the day-to-day actions of the Cognizant employees, so they are absolutely joint employers. Sort of like the courts have found that McDonalds, the corporation, can't hide behind "they work for a franchisee" because McDonalds corp dictates so much of the day-to-day actions of employees, even at franchise locations. Google needs to fire its in-house legal team, since they're the ones responsible for managing the external counsel who apparently thought using the same argument that was rejected before would somehow work this time.
I don't really get the whole union busting mentality either. If the union gets greedy, it puts its members out of work by bankrupting the company. At the same time, companies can save a lot of money by having only one contract to cover pretty much every employee and being able to negotiate with a single group of people instead of a bunch of people individually. It seems to have been lost in the corporate world, somewhere along the way, that if you treat your employees well, they'll generally do a better job. Google got its start by hiring people with PhDs and specialized in really technical fields, then paying them a lot more than was customary at the time. Google goes on to very swiftly become a dominate player in search and other areas. Then the DoubleClick rot of penny pinching and employee abuse, in the name of profits, started setting in, and you see Google slipping significantly. Not saying Apple is any way perfect, but I've done some contracting work for both Google and Apple, and the way contractors were treated at Apple vs Google was practically night and day. Apple is dominating the mobile market, which is where most of the money is these days... when's the last time you remember hearing about Google doing anything innovative or market (re)defining?
If you use any google services or work for any google company, you deserve all you will get from google. Why would you expect anything but exploitative shite.
Ditch the cnuts.
Re: Google
Come now, Cnut was quite a decent king of England, though his successors weren't that great.
Good!
I've worked contract for years only it's really temp work. And once you get on the temp train, almost nobody wants to hire you onto the client company, or any company. Oh they say temp-to-hire, but it never is.
Temp workers are always treated as second class. No paid sick days, no paid holidays, no raises, the most expensive self-paid "benefits" plans. (how paying for your own "benefit" is a benefit in any way has yet to be explained to me.)
So good the NLRB told google to kiss ass! Long term temp work has to go.