Rather than meet employees at the bargaining table, Google decided to do the equivalent of throwing the table into the air. This week, a YouTube Music employee who had recently been embroiled in a tense union battle with Google was fired during testimony before the Austin City Council.
This is the exact moment our colleagues found out we were fired while speaking in front of the City Council pic.twitter.com/IcsCszGe3Z
— Jacob (@peepaw_) March 1, 2024
In a video testimony, Jack Benedict spoke about the unionization effort, explaining that a group of less than 50 people was determined to take on two of the world’s largest companies: Google and its subcontractor Cognizant. During the speech, another employee came up to me and said: Our work ends today, effective immediately. ” Benedict was visibly shocked and responded, “Wow,” and they left the podium as time was running out.
It all started last spring, in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, in which a group of 58 employees on the YouTube Music Content Operations team unanimously voted to unionize as part of the Alphabet Workers Union. (NLRB), after a year of fighting, after voting in press release By Austin City Councilman. Employees spoke of the need for better pay, benefits and more flexible return-to-office policies.
The news that Google is firing the YouTube Music team comes before the Austin City Council votes on a resolution that would require Google and Cognizant to negotiate with the YouTube Music content operations team. The resolution passed 9-1.
“While employees were testifying at City Hall, they received word that their team had been fired. Instead of having the opportunity to stay and celebrate the passage of the resolution, they received word that their team had been fired,” according to an Austin City Council press release. “Many of the workers feel they may lose their homes due to sudden and unexpected layoffs, and some are facing retribution for taking a stand today,” he said. Some people think it might.”
The dark side of technology
Employees have formed a union and petitioned Google to come to the negotiating table as part of a larger fight for better pay and benefits, but the software company has refused. The company argues that Google is not responsible for negotiating because its employees are contractors. Cognizant is a contractor instead. However, the NLRB ruled otherwise, ruling that Google and Cognizant are joint employers of YouTube Music workers.
The NLRB ruled that Google’s refusal to negotiate with YouTube Music employees was illegal. The board also introduced new rules in December that would “make it more difficult for companies like Google to argue that they are not responsible for addressing unionization efforts by third-party contractors.” reported the Verge.
Indeed, in a statement to luck, a Google spokesperson said the Austin-based unionized workers are “not Google employees.” Cognizant is responsible for the terms and conditions of employment of these workers, including staffing. They added, “We have no objection to Cognizant employees choosing to form a union.” “We simply believe that it is appropriate for Cognizant to participate in collective bargaining as an employer,” Google said in a statement that it will appeal the NLRB’s ruling to the contrary.
Google also denied that it had fired any YouTube Music employees, saying this was a routine contract termination “agreed to with Cognizant.”
After this article was published, a Cognizant spokesperson said: luck“Project ramp-downs and ramp-ups are a normal part of Cognizant’s business operations. This agreement has terminated at its scheduled expiration date.”
The spokesperson went on to say that former YouTube Music employees will “become part of Cognizant’s deployable talent pool, better known as our ‘bench,’ and will be given a paid position to explore and build other roles within the organization.” They will be given seven weeks of dedicated time,” he added. Learn new skills through our training ecosystem. ”
Still, the Alphabet union said the contract termination was sudden and no notice was given to affected workers.
As the former employees pointed out, the NLRB twice ruled that Google and Cognizant were joint employers of these contractors and that Google illegally changed working conditions without contacting the union. ing.
Led by Alphabet Labor Union luck The company’s official statement on the issue states that many employees are forced to work multiple jobs to make a living and are unable to meet their in-person work obligations because they are not paid enough to cover the costs associated with in-person work. There was no such thing.” This is work that pays for things like gas and childcare fees. ” They also highlighted a quote from the NLRB’s regional director in Fort Worth, Texas, from a ruling last year that found the contractors were employed by both Alphabet and Cognizant. “Google will have direct and immediate control over benefits, working hours, supervision and work instructions,” the regional director said.
An employee who worked at YouTube Music for three years confessed that his tech job wasn’t as easy-going as the stereotype. “The truth is, we make $19 an hour here, but we get terrible benefits out of that salary. [we had] Restrictive Paid Time Off Policy,” he said in an Instagram post. “This is simply not enough to live comfortably in a city where the average cost of living has generally increased significantly year on year.” It added that the group has formed a union to change these conditions and wages. , employees noted that working remotely made their jobs easier because they could skip the commute and save money by cooking meals at home.
“Google and Cognizant are making huge profits off of our labor, and as a result, they have (for lack of a better word) screwed us over,” the employee says.
Updated March 1, 2024: This story has been updated with a response from Cognizant.
