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How's this for union busting?
YouTube Music staff laid off in middle of meeting about employment rights with Austin City CouncilComplete Music Update (music industry news site)
Members of a YouTube Music team based in Austin, Texas found out that they had been laid off while urging the city's council to pass a resolution that would ask the company to negotiate with their union. The employees have been in dispute over the last year with YouTube and owner Google - and its parent company Alphabet - regarding new rules restricting remote working and a refusal to bargain with union representatives.
Jack Benedict, a data analyst for the YouTube music service, told the meeting of Austin City Council last week, "It's been over a year since we first went on strike over our employer's return to office policy". Employees opposed that policy, he added, not because they didn't want to work from YouTube's office in Austin, but because the post-COVID policy change was "essentially a lay off against a large percentage of our team who didn't live in the Austin area".
"Again in September we went on strike over our employer's refusal to bargain with our union", he went on. "To this day they refuse to come to the negotiating table and Google still refuses to acknowledge us as their employees even after countless losses in court which say the contrary". That latter point relates to the fact that the YouTube Music team are technically contractors employed via a third party, the professional services company Cognizant.
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Jack Benedict, a data analyst for the YouTube music service, told the meeting of Austin City Council last week, "It's been over a year since we first went on strike over our employer's return to office policy". Employees opposed that policy, he added, not because they didn't want to work from YouTube's office in Austin, but because the post-COVID policy change was "essentially a lay off against a large percentage of our team who didn't live in the Austin area".
"Again in September we went on strike over our employer's refusal to bargain with our union", he went on. "To this day they refuse to come to the negotiating table and Google still refuses to acknowledge us as their employees even after countless losses in court which say the contrary". That latter point relates to the fact that the YouTube Music team are technically contractors employed via a third party, the professional services company Cognizant.
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Even "progressive" companies aren't so progressive when it comes to unions.
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