Comments

2
So... what part of the (presumably epic) TOS did they allegedly violate?
3
Well you know one tech company has to have the back of other tech companies, because they certainly can't have any tech companies going union.
4
And (as if we needed it) Google clearly does not support freedom of speech. #corporateamerica #unitedstatesofmoney
5
Yet another example of the legacy Reagan's war on labor. Ronald Reagan worst labor union leader ever and betrayer of the middle class.
6
@5:

Ironic, given that Reagan was himself at one time the elected President of a labor union.
7
Why the fuck were they using Google to host it? There are dozens of super cheap off shore web hosts that don't care what you post. I don't see why they didn't have it back up within a few hours.
8
Robber barons don't like unions.
10
@9 are you Jeff Bezos, or just an asshole?
11
@10:

There's a difference?
12
I double-dog-dare Jay to declare them criminals.
13
Boooo. Google you suck. What does anyone expect? Google was convicted of wage fixing engineering salaries and agreed to a $415 million dollar settlement.
18
Unionization has been tried in the tech industry for years. Like with Microsoft. Resistance is not always from management - a lot has to do with the nature of software development itself. For example, how would unionization benefit techies, typically older, entreprenureal, whom don't want full time employment and prefer contracting. This is a large group. The only other industry I see parallels where unionization might be logistically practical is the movie and entertainment industry, like SAG.
20
Because I am all legal focused today, I wonder if the concern was libel. Not that it is a good reason, but given how pointedly focused the stories are, and without the libel defense of prrof in place, it could have been seen as legal exposure. Just conjecture, and it is still a dick move.
22
@20, could be, if the statements made are "vicious" and thus not requiring intent to be considered libel..
23
@13, google and a bunch of other companies were price fixing employee salaries. They seem to fear employee collective action, don't they?

https://pando.com/2014/03/22/revealed-ap…
24
@18, raindrop
Techies thinking of unionizing might consider the way that building trades and longshore unions work, through a union-controlled hiring hall. The unions set skill standards and the employer goes to the union controlled hiring hall (metaphorical hall for tech,obv) to hire someone with a set of skills for a contracted gig. The employer pays fees on top of the contract to maintain the hall and the benefits package that extend for some time after the contract. The union (democratically controlled by the workers in theory) has rules to keep the job cue fair so you have fairness in getting the next gig.
That set up is hard to get started - you need a critical mass of the workers to agree to only seek work through the hiring hall, rather than just employer by employer organizing.
25
All the rantings against and paranoia about Big Government are totally unwarranted and distractions to the real danger to our society and freedom . . . Big Tech.

Just sayin'
26
Tech business workers at Amazon probably won't unionize because they have options, but keeping track of Amazon management's misdeeds will improve things, warn others, and help with the people who are really being shit on...delivery drivers, warehouse workers, truck drivers. Amazon has been forced to give maternity leave with lots of conditions as a result of activism. Their executives are robotic in their hatred for workers and their middle managers they brought to the US are from parts of the world with no human rights or American values. They may do business worldwide, but the company needs to be brought to task to get up to American standards if they are going to do business here.
31
#28 the system #24 mentions actually works pretty well. I've worked in this type of system for many years in the power maintenance industry, and it works quite well. We provide highly skilled individuals who do their jobs and help our union contractors compete with cheaper nonunion contractors. We don't this through our apprenticeship program and the many classes and tests we take to stay on the cutting edge of safety and other work practices.
32
Though I'll reserve some space for Google to ultimately be dicks in this, my suspicion is that Amazon took advantage of some TOS procedures for site.google.com hosted websites. Likely, someone at Amazon dug through the terms, found a type of complaint that would be likely to trigger an immediate suspension followed by a review, and then made that complaint. The site was suspended, the suspension was reviewed and/or complained about, when a real person / someone in legal actually looked at it they determined it was bogus, and the site was put back up. I suspect Google is probably legally obliged to withhold information about the party that filed the complaint (for obvious reasons - it would be a huge privacy issue... if it was for an individual who's privacy we actually cared about - i.e. not amazon), so I doubt if any more useful information will ever come to light, unfortunately.

All that is to say: lets just go ahead and assume that this bit of assholery was perpetrated by the biggest asshole in the room. Amazon doesn't seem to care whether people think they're assholes anyway, as long as we all keep our prime subscriptions (ahem).
35
Quick everyone jump to conclusion about "evil" corporations. How dare a company of 250,000 employees who are paid very well for industry standers have employees that aren't happy. In over four months 80 people of come forward. That is .032%. Obviously people are very unhappy. Try looking at federal workers happiness. In 2013 43% of federal workers said that they were happy with their jobs. Maybe the Unions should look at making their workers happier.

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