Gaming Industry’Not to interrupt, but they just laid us all off': Unionised YouTube workers in Texas are told in the middle of a live City Council meeting that they don’t have jobs anymoreWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Gaming Industry’Not to interrupt, but they just laid us all off': Unionised YouTube workers in Texas are told in the middle of a live City Council meeting that they don’t have jobs anymoreWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: The City of Austin government access channel / ATXN)
YouTube Music contractors were informed mid-speech, during apublicly-recorded and broadcastmeeting with the City Council of Austin, Texas that they’d just lost their jobs.
this is the exact moment our coworkers found out we had been laid off while speaking in front of city council pic.twitter.com/IcsCszGe3ZMarch 1, 2024
this is the exact moment our coworkers found out we had been laid off while speaking in front of city council pic.twitter.com/IcsCszGe3ZMarch 1, 2024
“As I was sat behind him, filming him, I got a text message from my co-worker letting them know that they had all just been laid off in our weekly team meeting,” says Marschner in alater videoposted to the union’s Twitter account.
The council was set to consider and pass a resolution that would call on Google to bargain with the group of contractors, a group that Google maintains should be bargaining with “their employer” Cognizant instead. Cognizant ispartnered with Googleas part of a dedicated “Google Cloud Business Group”.
The statement also explains that: “Workers began an Unfair Labour Practice strike on February 3, 2023 in response to a retaliatory return-to-work mandate … Workers joined the strike because their only other option was ‘voluntary termination’ for being unable to physically show up at the office. Many workers either live across state lines or are not paid enough to afford the associated expenses with in-person work, like gas and childcare costs. While dozens of local workers returned to work, several out of state workers maintained the strike.”
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In a statement sent to404mediaand several other press organisations, Google argues that the layoffs occurred on the contractor’s normal expiry date. The statement reads: “As we’ve shared before, these are not Google employees. Cognizant is responsible for these workers' employment terms, including staffing. As is the case here, contracts with our suppliers across the company routinely end on their natural expiry date, which was agreed to with Cognizant.”
A report from theWashington Postpaints a less amicable, expected picture of the layoffs themselves—which claim an expiration that was far from natural: “Sam Regan, a data analyst contractor for YouTube Music, was at the office when the layoff hit. The mood was suspicious, he said, as security guards joined a short morning meeting where company leaders ‘coldly’ informed workers that their project was being cut. Workers had about 20 minutes to gather their belongings and leave the premises before they were considered trespassing.”
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