Re:Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file...
by lolinder on Tuesday April 30, 2024 @08:34PM
(#40218192)
Walkouts are very different in character. It's a mini-strike, not an occupation. People voluntarily leave their jobs for a day, they don't sit in someone else's workspace and prevent them from doing theirs.
Sure, it's more disruptive to the company because the numbers are larger, but the damage done by each individual ends at not doing their work for the day. It's a statement of "this is what your company will look like if you don't address this" not "we're going to make a scene and hang out in your personal space".
Re:Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file...
by mmcwilliams on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @07:56AM
(#40222026)
This is a very selective and ahistorical definition of "strike". Strikes regularly block shipping lanes and scab workers from entering so they often prevent others from doing work on a job site.
Re:Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file...
by _heimdall on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @08:06AM
(#40222091)
Have you seen this done in recent years?
I've personally seen AT&T employees go on strike but they were nothing like this. The employees on strike wouldn't go to work, and there were signs and a few people sitting at tables near the entrance to main office buildings in Atlanta, but nothing was blocked and the people there sure seemed more like they were paid by the union to be there and didn't really care at all.
Re:Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file...
by ryukoposting on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @08:24AM
(#40222204)
The bigger issue with the term "strike" here is that Google isn't unionized (yes, I know AWU exists, but it's less than 1% of their workforce)
Re:Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file...
by robertlagrant on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @09:54AM
(#40223282)
If they were unionised the workers wouldn't have been paid for the walkout, presumably.
Re:Google workers fired for protesting Israeli contract file...
by lupire on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @10:03AM
(#40223389)
Yes but that's the illegal version of strike, which is met with violent law enforcement response.
That said, the 2018 protests were definitely more disruptive than this one. 20,000 employees left their desks. [1]
Part of it might also be that several of the organizers of the 2018 walkouts left Google in the months following the walkouts (including Meredith Whittaker, who now runs the company behind Signal).
I think my original argument in the GP is wrong. The more I read about this topic, the more the true narrative seems like "after the 2018 walk-outs, Google took steps to ensure mass political action within the company like the action that tanked Maven would never happen again," and we're now seeing the results of those steps.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Google_walkouts