I'm not terribly surprised that this is the suspected reason for termination, but if its true, what were the workers looking to gain?
Rights? Many of the things demanded and expected of us in the tech industry would be considered controversial, unethical or in some cases illegal in most other modern industries. As someone from Gen-X who has been variously involved in our industry for over 20 years this is one of the reasons I gave up on the corporate world long ago. We simultaneously thrive on the cutting edge of science and technological innovation while somehow accepting the same obtuse, ignorant and backwards views of the very same failed industries we displaced. For years we thought and aspired to do something better, that the emerging technology we embraced and saw as the future would bring about positive change. To the people of my generation and the pioneers we learned from, it wasn't a future but the future. Now, we not only accept but praise and reward it's use against us. It was unionization that brought an end to the era of the "robber barons" but now our industry not only rejects those basic rights but actively works against them. History is repeating itself. Questionable tech companies may make questionable decisions but we ultimately do the work. They don't exist without us and we have not only a responsibility to use our knowledge ethically, but also a right. Our industry only exists because we thought ahead to the future and embraced it. Embracing the ideals of a failed past only holds us back and inevitably leads to same failures.