Google workers to DOJ: we need protections to make your breakup effective

theverge.com

21 points·rntn··9 comments

How many people out of a group need to say something before you're allowed to say "Group says X..."?

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_Workers_Union, there are 800 members, out of maybe 200,000 FTEs and TVCs. So about .4% of workers say this thing.

I bet out of 200,000 people there, you could find 800 who think the moon landing wasn't real, or that the biggest public health concern is re-allowing smoking in public parks in NYC.

and AWU is at least internally not very well regarded by other employees.

"not very well regarded" being an euphemism. It's often seen as a pool of lower performers.

> or that the biggest public health concern is re-allowing smoking in public parks in NYC.

This is pretty sad to hear about.

A little bit of a joke - there is one dude who makes dozens of memes to this end.

This is set out in the NLRA which is 29 US code 157 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/157 I'm not a lawyer and it seems not straightforward.

One thing I will say in favor of that union is that you have to be a member on purpose.

The lizardman constant is real, but it is spawned by people being made to take surveys that they would prefer not to be badgered with.

The DOJ antitrust division's mandate is to promote competition by enforcing antitrust law. They aren't really concerned with worker's rights except insofar as those rights are affected by anticompetitive behaviours such as non-competes etc[1], so I'm not sure the AWU are going to get very far here.

[1] https://www.justice.gov/atr/mission

Its good they are talking. If your job is to build empire defense features into Chrome, then there is no one better to talk about which features to take out.

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