Google Flat-Out Refuses to Bargain With Workers, Prompting YouTube Music Strike

A Google spokesperson told Motherboard in a statement at the time of the unionization that it had “no objection to these Cognizant workers electing to form a union,” but that it would not bargain with them. “We are not a joint employer as we simply do not control their employment terms or working conditions—this matter is between the workers and their employer, Cognizant,” the spokesperson said.

NLRB seems to disagree. This will be an interesting case, I suspect ...

I'm very much pro-union, but meanwhile artists and creators who made that content in the first place are getting fucked by everyone

The article became increasingly redundant as it continued. The crux seems to be Google isn't their employer. These workers work for a subcontractor, Cognizant. Cognizant performs services for YouTube Music.

Cognizant is refusing to bargain citing the ongoing relevant litigation* between its employees and Google.

• I'm not sure what the legal process is called for union claims.

Some of the employees are striking for 1 day.

What’s to stop every single corporation from leveraging third party contractor companies just to escape union bargaining? Cognizant seems like a company that basically exists for this reason. Both Amazon and Google play this game and it’s infuriating.

People use YouTube Music?

YouTube Music is the enshitttified version of Google Play Music.

/c/unions is worth subbing to.

Time to stop using Gmail and YouTube. I had already avoided go░gle search for months now.

Over the last three or four months I had deleted all my FaceBook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram accounts. And this made me want to avoid go░gle search.

A Cognizant spokesperson told Motherboard in an email, “We have received the Alphabet Workers Union’s request for a Cognizant bargaining representative. The request put forward was for both Cognizant and Google to bargain. While we respect our associates’ rights to unionize, we firmly believe Cognizant is the sole employer of our associates. While the joint employer ruling remains unresolved, we cannot bargain at this time.”

“Google refuses to just admit that they are our employer, and then Cognizant is just using Google's legal appeals as a scapegoat,” Marschner said. “That, honestly, is exactly why we filed for joint employer status in the first place. We knew that if we just tried to engage in collective bargaining with Cognizant, that's exactly what they would do.”

wut

Everybody's striking! LFG!

Google: Don't be evil. PROFIT UBER ALLES!!!

I get the technicality of all this, but this could be a watershed moment. Businesses like to contract people out to move liability and cut corners in their obligations to the workers. The bottom line is that its cheaper and easier to fire whatever contractors you don't like for any reason, and artificially push their salaries/wages down.

Look at Fedex Ground, Amazon drivers, etc. Google is now firmly in the role of the bad guy here, with Sundar Pichai making 220+ million dollars with much of it on the backs of layoffs and ethnically bankrupt business practices. I honestly think the ramifications of this in a positive way for the workers is tantamount to the formation of the UAW itself with their sitting strikes. They sat at the machines and forcibly halted production.

That needs to happen here, and all you scabs, fuck you. You can just piss off.

I just want to see more strikes. 🙂

I can't believe I'm saying it but but I'm with Google here. They are sub-cons so negotiation would surely go through their employer who is cognizant. I'm a sub-contractor, I'm not gonna go to the client and ask for a raise, I'm gonna go to my employer. Maybe it's different in different regions but if I asked the client for a raise in the uk they would probably just laugh at me.

Defeat the fuckingcapitalists

could they put bring the dislike count back on the demands? and make so video posters can't delete comments, so we can call bullshit when needed? that would be nice

As somebody who's been boycotting big media for years, I can't be happier to see the copyright industry slowly backstabbing itself once and over again

Yea, no...the headline is wrong on this one. These guys are contractors. Google will just nuke Cognizant's contract and call it a day.

Those guys aren't particularly good in my experience and are just warm bodies to do things that should be automated anyway.

Google will simply go to another big contract firm and call it a day.