But developers at Uber and Lyft can spam drivers and riders with "Tap to support Prop 22" every time they want to use their apps with no consequence? I don't see how anyone can get upset with employees notifying fellow employees of their legal rights when the same tech companies will abuse their platforms to literally broadcast their political beliefs.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/4/21549760/uber-lyft-prop-2...

> same tech companies will abuse their platforms to literally broadcast their political beliefs.

if the owners of the company feels the desire to, they can instruct their employees to perform work to broadcast/promote their (owner's) political beliefs. This is just a case of a company using its resources for a purpose designated by the owner.

An employee co-opting company resources without owner approval to broadcast their (employee's) political message is not allowed, unless explicitly given permission by the owners.

Why people cannot tell the difference between the two situations above is beyond me - it's not like they are similar or confusing.

But the NLRB ruled that what Spiers did was perfectly within their rights, so you’re completely wrong in this specific case. However correct you may believe yourself in the abstract, entirely relies on the lawfulness of the specifics.

> Spiers did was perfectly within their rights

no that's not what the article says.

The article claims: > NLRB has found Google’s policy against employees looking at certain coworkers’ calendars is unlawful.

Google claimed that she abused security notification system for websites to show a non-security related message (see https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/17/fifth-google...). She could, within her rights, send emails to organize a company wide meeting, or write up a public document to talk about unionization. If google had banned this, then they would fall afoul of the law.

May be google is really using the excuse that she abused security notification systems to fire her. That's something I'm not privy to, and only litigation will reveal this (if it even does).

You’re incorrectly conflating the two cases described in the article. Berland was fired for viewing other’s calendars, Spiers for the notifications.

The NLRB ruled both firings were illegitimate and their actions protected under labor law. So no, she was within her rights and the NLRB said she’s to be reinstated.

The NLRB has no direct enforcement power, so how it resolves itself will be dependent on if the NLRB pursues Google in the U.S. Court of Appeals, they settle out of court, or otherwise. My guess is that they settle because an NLRB ruling against you isn’t likely to work in your favor in the event of an employment lawsuit. But regardless, what Spiers did stands as a favorable precedent for workers in the event of other disputes with similar circumstances.

Do you believe those messages were done by developers, on their own initiative? Or by company PR people whose profession is to manage public messaging? The point is, somebody used checked in code to further personal political aims. I highly doubt that is what occurred at Lyft and Uber.

The developers in your example are doing it with the express approval of the company and management. The ones at Google were not.

So yes, there is a big difference.

> using your position as a developer to put up "Vote X" signs on your company's website.

To state the law* for internal users who visit one specific website

There is also a big difference in saying "Vote for X" vs. "You are allowed to vote."

Ok. So it's OK if your webhost provider replaces your homepage with the phrase "you are allowed to vote"?

I think apt comparison is - if some Apple or Google engineer would push a non-authorized OTA update to all Apple/Google phones which would add a permanent political banner to homescreen - would you consider this to be a firing offense or not?

And to people who are trying to justify this by process being "technically possible" - there is a non empty set of Apple and Google employees who can technically push any code to your phone remotely. Is it still acceptable for them to use that to push their political agenda?

Because it comes down to trust. You trust people who can push code to your devices to not abuse it.

Pushing a banner to all phones with a political message would be a brazen abuse of one's engineering position.

This developer's change was much more narrow, it modified an internal tool that only Google employees see. But it's still breaching professionalism. If the message instead was, "Unions are corrupt and deprive people of individual agency" would that be acceptable? Especially with the unique position Google is in as our gateway to information, it's prudent to avoid employees that cannot refrain from making changes to production software to further personal politics.