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Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

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Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#101

Post by haberman »

the_gastropod wrote: post #86
haberman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those "overwhelmingly peaceful" protests caused an estimated $1-2B in property damage, making them the most destructive protests (from an insurance perspective) in the last 50 years: https://www.axios.com/2020/09/16/riots-cost-property-damage

Don’t you find it weird that one of these “riots” locations is “across 20 states”, and the remainder have an actual… y’know, single location? Why are we comparing things this way to exaggerate damages and undermine the overwhelming majority of people peacefully protesting? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/05/nearly-all-bla...

Add up all the riots of 1965 - 1968 and it is still less damage than 2020. That's not an exaggeration, it is what the numbers say.

If peaceful protestors find that fact undermining, they should take it up with the violent protestors who caused all this damage, rather than shooting the messenger.

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#102

Post by davidf18 »

worried4future wrote: post #9

The meat of it is here: > Google “retaliated against approximately 50 employees and interfered with their Section 7 rights by terminating and/or placing them on administrative leave in response to their protected concerted activity, namely, participation (or perceived participation) in a peaceful, non-disruptive protest that was directly and explicitly connected to their terms and conditions of work,” the complaint r…

[dead]

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#103

Post by toast0 »

worried4future wrote: post #9

The meat of it is here: > Google “retaliated against approximately 50 employees and interfered with their Section 7 rights by terminating and/or placing them on administrative leave in response to their protected concerted activity, namely, participation (or perceived participation) in a peaceful, non-disruptive protest that was directly and explicitly connected to their terms and conditions of work,” the complaint r…

I mean, go ahead and file a complaint, right?

But my read of the situation while skimming the NLRB summary [1] is this complaint is unlikely to win

> Strikes unlawful because of misconduct of strikers or other loss of protection. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a “sitdown” strike, when employees simply stay in the plant and refuse to work is not protected by the law.

This feels pertinent, but not a whole match.

> Furthermore, Section 8(b)(4) of the Act prohibits strikes for certain objects even though the objects are not necessarily unlawful if achieved by other means. An example of this would be a strike to compel Employer A to cease doing business with Employer B. It is not unlawful for Employer A voluntarily to stop doing business with Employer B, nor is it unlawful for a union merely to request that it do so. It is, however, unlawful for the union to strike with an object of forcing the employer to do so. These points will be covered in more detail in the explanation of Section 8(b)(4). In any event, employees who participate in an unlawful strike may be discharged and are not entitled to reinstatement.

On the summary page, this looks like striking to prevent their employer from doing business with another employer (IDF) and might apply, but further reading seems to indicate this is about striking to not do business with a non-union employer, which isn't actually relevant. But either way, it's not clear to me that striking about who your employer does business with is a 'lawful' strike.

[1] https://www.nlrb.gov/strikes

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#104

Post by the_gastropod »

haberman wrote: post #101
the_gastropod wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t you find it weird that one of these “riots” locations is “across 20 states”, and the remainder have an actual… y’know, single location? Why are we comparing things this way to exaggerate damages and undermine the overwhelming majority of people peacefully protesting? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/05/nearly-all-bla...

Add up all the riots of 1965 - 1968 and it is still less damage than 2020. That's not an exaggeration, it is what the numbers say. If peaceful protestors find that fact undermining, they should take it up with the violent protestors who caused all this damage, rather than shooting the messenger.

There are 8. Vs 20 states. These are not comparable in scale whatsoever.

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#105

Post by khazhoux »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #94
khazhoux wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is someone actually claiming that none of them are anti-semitic? The pro-Hamas antisemites are in the tiny majority of the protesters.

[flagged]

You should know after 13 years on Hacker News that "Are you incapable of reading?" is not an acceptable reply here.

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#106

Post by bitcurious »

xyst wrote: post #12

Has anybody noticed that whenever the protests pop up. Major news outlets tend to spin them as some sort of haven for “anti-Semitism” or cite them as the “violent protests”. I have yet to see organizations (at least on the ground, in major press releases) cite anything that represents hate against the Jewish population. Only rhetoric I have heard is those protesting the horrific actions of the Israeli government/mili…

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/nyregion/college-protests...

A fairly credible source discussing just this question. A pretty blatant example is a linked video of protestors intimidating three Jewish students while claiming that they are “zionists” without any evidence except the students’ Jewishness.

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#107

Post by refulgentis »

D13Fd wrote: post #100
krainboltgreene wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is true "privilege" speaking -- they don't seem to realize how fortunate they were to be in their positions in the first place. This is an extreme assumption on your part. > Companies employ you because it's a good deal for them. If you're lucky, you find a place where it is a good deal for you too. Protesting and disrupting work changes that calculus for the company. It's no longer a good deal for them, and t…

> This is an extreme assumption on your part. It's not. As I said, that's what I take from a video where a string of people had some of the best paying jobs available to any kind of worker, and at one of the most significant companies in the world right now, but don't seem to appreciate how fortunate they were to be in that situation or that they are replaceable. > hoping for reason and empathy to prevail "Reason" is…

[flagged]

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#108

Post by devsda »

reactordev wrote: post #30

Rule number one of being a rebel. Don’t do it at work. Protest all you want in the public streets where you have freedom of assembly. You do NOT have that freedom within a corporate office building. Regardless of employer. A few firings and maybe they’ll get the message to take it outside. I empathize with people wanting to speak out over something they are passionate about. I do this often. Just know your venue and…

At almost every company I've worked over the years, I had to go through countless mandatory annual trainings that effectively says expressing opinions on non work related subjective political topics with coworkers/employer is not advisable, risky and can be grounds for termination in extreme cases.

Either these people genuinely believed there was scope for discussion, or believed their opinion/choice of topic is a PR minefield that their employer wouldn't dare take action or they really wanted to get fired.

I'm not from the US. So, unless I'm missing some cultural context, their actions like political activism at work (unless related to labor issues and laws) are unthinkable atleast in my country.

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#109

Post by defrost »

bitcurious wrote: post #106
xyst wrote: post #12

Has anybody noticed that whenever the protests pop up. Major news outlets tend to spin them as some sort of haven for “anti-Semitism” or cite them as the “violent protests”. I have yet to see organizations (at least on the ground, in major press releases) cite anything that represents hate against the Jewish population. Only rhetoric I have heard is those protesting the horrific actions of the Israeli government/mili…

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/nyregion/college-protests... A fairly credible source discussing just this question. A pretty blatant example is a linked video of protestors intimidating three Jewish students while claiming that they are “zionists” without any evidence except the students’ Jewishness.

Were these protestors the ones that were arrested holding a Passover seder in New York?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/24/not-like-other...

Or were these student protestors at Columbia?

https://zeteo.com/p/i-am-a-jewish-student-at-columbia

Re: Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file NLRB complaint

#110

Post by [deleted] »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #50
xyst wrote: post #12

Has anybody noticed that whenever the protests pop up. Major news outlets tend to spin them as some sort of haven for “anti-Semitism” or cite them as the “violent protests”. I have yet to see organizations (at least on the ground, in major press releases) cite anything that represents hate against the Jewish population. Only rhetoric I have heard is those protesting the horrific actions of the Israeli government/mili…

Obviously not all protesters are anti-semitic but you must be willfully ignorant to honestly believe that none of them are. For example, here are some signs that have been found in protests (you can find examples on google): - "from the river to the sea" -> implies the destruction of Israel - "keep the world clean" -> seems to imply some sort of "cleansing" of Jews - "by any means necessary" -> seems to condone viole…

[deleted]
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