I don't understand how you see a story about terrible treatment of Google contractors, followed by severe retaliation when they try to negotiate better conditions, and your main takeaway is, "Huh, these union people seem to spend all their time trying to protect themselves from retaliation.
Sounds fishy."
These people were offered benefits that never materialized and generally treated unfairly. I don't know why some people instantly assume it's the billion dollar company that's in the right, and the guy or gal making $15/hr who's trying to take advantage of the system.
But did the union do anything about the working conditions for these contractors, or just the retaliation for this one person who got fired?
I don’t have anything against the worker here, I feel for them. It just seems like the union is very ineffective, and it’s goals don’t even seem to be aligned with the workers (other than those who get fired for being in the union).
If unionizing is so pointless, why did Google suspend her for even talking about unionizing? Also, the article states quite explicitly that management did not want employees talking about wages. Now employees can. Is successfully protecting freedom of speech really such a small thing to you?
To put myself in the shoes of the worker, of course I want better working conditions and pay.
To put myself in the shoes of management. My company has a class of workers who do activism instead of their job. If one of my employees wants to join that class, I’m probably going to be disappointed - although firing them for this would be idiotic, because it’s illegal and will get me in trouble with the NLRB.
I think the workers here absolutely deserve representation that can get them paid more than $15 an hour, but this union doesn’t seem to be it. It seems more like an institutionalized pissing match between a clique of employees and management. It’s like a hack that exploits labor law to protect workers from the peril of at-will employment. Don’t like the expectations of your job, but still want to get paid? Join the union! Now if they fire you, it’s retaliation!
These people were offered benefits that never materialized and generally treated unfairly. I don't know why some people instantly assume it's the billion dollar company that's in the right, and the guy or gal making $15/hr who's trying to take advantage of the system.