Google Walkout
medium.com/@googlewalkout · Group blog · on HN since 2018
Google Walkout is the account of Google employees who organized the walkout, writing about worker organizing, firings, and contract workers.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it in debates on Google's firing of organizers, union-busting claims, and the limits of US labor law.
15HN people shared it
8linked it in comments
8stories submitted
366story points
6 years agolast shared
2018people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Google’s fires four organizers after hiring union-busting firm4 people · 273 points · first shared 2019 · 95 comments on HN
- 2Invisible no longer: Google’s shadow workforce speaks up3 people · 28 points · first shared 2018 · 4 comments on HN
- 3Why a Google Walkout Organizer Left Google3 people · 4 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 4Google fired us for organizing. We’re fighting back2 people · 51 points · first shared 2019 · 7 comments on HN
- 5Google Walkout Organiser Leaves Google2 people · 3 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 6#GoogleWalkout update: Collective action works, but we need to keep working1 people · 7 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
Traster · 2019-11-26
I think it's worth including here a link to the protesters statement, especially because one of the employees states that they were categorically told they were not fired for leaking company information.
https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/googles-next-moonshot-union-busting-…
jefftk · 2020-05-09
Firing organizers was an example of that: https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/google-fired-us-for-organizing-were-…
I don't think firing Damore was?
(Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)
lisper · 2020-04-01
> This is entirely not true when discussing the conditions of work: see the National Labor Relations Act.
The NLRA is pretty much toothless nowadays.
https://jalopnik.com/the-tesla-firings-were-about-unionizing-efforts-u…
https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/google-fired-us-for-organizing-were-…
> Nor is it strictly true for speech that takes place outside the workplace.
You are nominally correct. However, if I am your employer and I want to fire you I can almost certainly come up with some legitimate reason to put on the record. Your only recourse will be to file a wrongful termination suit and try to prove that the real reason I fired you was something other than what I said it was. Good luck with that.
Also, if you're in an at-will state, I don't even have to come up with an excuse. If I want you gone, you're gone.
wortelefant · 2019-11-26
The"unauthorized access" argument is tainted by the ambiguity of these new document access rules, or that they were introduced after hiring a "union busting" company, this article claims: https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/googles-next-moonshot-union-busting-…
shay_ker · 2019-07-16
I'm surprised no one has linked Meredith Whittaker's statement on this:
https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/onward-another-googlewalkout-goodbye…
eigenvector · 2019-06-07
You can read Claire's reasons for leaving Google in her own words here: https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/why-a-googlewalkout-organizer-left-g…
claudeganon · 2020-02-19
> Before you call anybody ignorant, maybe stop and think about the last time a tech employer murdered people.
Does the YouTube shooting count? Google only sent real time security updates to full time employees, leaving contractors to fend for themselves, even though they’re now a majority contractor workforce:
https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/invisible-no-longer-googles-shadow-w…
And this event certainly has pushed labor organizing at the company.
See also worker deaths at Amazon:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/17/amazon-warehouse-wo…
It doesn’t seem at all irrelevant to me that companies have a long history of compromising workers safety, unto their deaths, and especially when workers don’t organize to defend themselves.
The progress you celebrate is because people before you did this en masse, so perhaps it is a good idea to be a little more respectful and cognizant of that history.