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Google Urged the US To Limit Protection for Activist Workers (bloomberg.com)

Google, whose employees have captured international attention in recent months through high-profile protests of workplace policies, has been quietly urging the U.S. government to narrow legal protection for workers organizing online. From a report: During the Obama administration, the National Labor Relations Board broadened employees' rights to use their workplace email system to organize around issues on the job. In a 2014 case, Purple Communications, the agency restricted companies from punishing employees for using their workplace email systems for activities like circulating petitions or fomenting walkouts, as well as trying to form a union. In filings in May 2017 and November 2018, obtained via Freedom of Information Act request, Alphabet's Google urged the National Labor Relations Board to undo that precedent.

Citing dissents authored by Republican appointees, Google's attorneys wrote that the 2014 standard "should be overruled" and a George W. Bush-era precedent -- allowing companies to ban organizing on their employee email systems -- should be reinstated. In an emailed statement, a Google spokeswoman said, "We're not lobbying for changes to any rules." Rather, she said, Google's claim that the Obama-era protections should be overturned was "a legal defense that we included as one of many possible defenses" against meritless claims at the NLRB.

1 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. The rest of the story by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0, Troll

    So, this is buried in the article:

    The name of the employee who was disciplined is redacted in the documents produced via FOIA. His attorney, Noah Peters, said that the employee declined to comment or to identify himself. Peters said that his client was punished by Google for dissenting from the company's "very, very left-wing office culture" and for sticking up for co-workers who didn't conform to the "tribal" political correctness there. Chris Baker, an attorney representing another worker whose claims against Google are part of the same NLRB case, declined to comment. “This case is without merit and we are defending the claim vigorously," Google's spokeswoman said.

    Google has denied the NLRB’s allegations of wrongdoing. In a filing responding to the NLRB, it says the employee it disciplined had committed misconduct which “interfered with Google’s lawful interest in maintaining an inclusive workplace for women and minorities that is free of unlawful bias, discrimination, and harassment.” Google also wrote that the NLRB should reverse some of the legal precedents being used against it, including the Purple Communications standard. It is not uncommon for companies to challenge legal precedents being used in cases against them.

    In other words this entire case is built on incel snowflake James Damore being disciplined for using Google's internal email system to spread his gamergate anti-women bullshit.

    For informational purposes, here is an unedited photograph of James Damore in happier days with a couple of his bros (who asked that their faces be obscured out of embarrassment for ever having associated with such a whiny little bitch):

    https://goo.gl/images/jofW8K

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.