The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 7th April 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 7th April 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Tuesday saw a lunch time protest by Google workers outside the company’s HQ at London’s King’s Cross.
They were protesting at drastic job cuts and the manner in which they are being implemented. It is clear that many 21st Century hi-tech companies have an approach to industrial relations that rejects the Victorian master and servant relationship as too sentimental and takes a mediæval baron and serf approach.
In January the monster company announced it was making 10,000 redundancy across the globe, including hundreds in London.
According to employment agency Reed their offices are the best in the world.
Google says working for them is not a normal nine to five job, but neglect to say that is because it is sometimes a five to nine job, am to pm. Its London HQ boasts of fancy furniture in offices that look like trendy living rooms and a secret garden, with free food three times each day. They offer parental leave entitlements well above legal obligations, life insurance and even allow you to bring in your dog.
Not everything is rosy in the secret garden, however. Like many paternalist employers, such as Marks & Spencer, employees are inclined to be shoved out much more easily than at unionised firms. Unite the union reports that Google is carrying out the redundancy process in a very high-handed manner.
Google’s UK management has ignored complaints put to them by Unite, which is the biggest union at Google. Unfortunately many of them joined only after the redundancies had been vaguely announced. Had more workers joined earlier, it is possible that Google would have been forced to heed the union.
At present Google is now holding one-to-one “consultations” with workers and refusing to allow union representatives to attend such meetings that decide the fate of workers. It even refuses to hear grievances on the process made by individuals because formally acknowledging such grievances would give individuals the right to have a union representative attend their consultation.
Unite complains that Google even insisted that workers with disabilities get doctors’ notes simply to have a fellow worker attend their meetings – and even in these cases union representation is forbidden. Google also demands that any worker taking legal advice must use a lawyer chosen by them if they want to claim legal costs and redundancy packages.
Unite regional officer Matt Whaley pointed out that: “Google’s treatment of staff and attempts at union-busting during the redundancy consultation process are appalling and potentially unlawful. “Google needs to listen to its own advice of not being evil.
They and Unite will not back down until Google allows workers full union representation, engages properly with the consultation process and treats its staff with the respect and dignity they deserve.” This is not a unique case; many high-tech companies are drastically cutting their workforces.
For the month of March alone Tech.co, the Los Angeles-based online newsletter for the sector, records a large number of similar redundancies are in the offing. Predatory retailer Amazon is sacking 9,000 of its workers (on top of 9,000 job losses announced in November); Meta, of Facebook fame, 10,000; Roku, social media hardware maker, 200; EA, the gaming company, 800. Software company Atlassian is “rebalancing” its workforce by sacking five per cent or 500 workers.
This is part of a trend. In February Twitter sacked 200 staff, many of whom knew about this only when they were locked out of their Twitter accounts. The Swedish telecommunications firm Ericsson is cutting 1,400 jobs in its native land, DocuSign is cutting 10 per cent of their staff, or 700 workers. Yahoo is going further, cutting a fifth of its 5,000 workforce; and eBay is reducing its headcount by 500, or four per cent. Zoom, which became an essential in 2020, is cutting 1,300 or 15 per cent, this comes after it tripled its workforce during the pandemic. Computer manufacturer Dell is losing 6,650 staff.
These are only the more familiar names and there are many other companies with strange meaningless names that have been doing the same, sometimes more than once. In some cases it is the pandemic bubble bursting.
Exercise bike company Peloton obviously does not do as much business when people are allowed outside. None of these companies are actually losing money and all say they need to “face the reality of a changing business environment”, “focus on core objectives”, etc, etc, and never admit to boosting profits for shareholders. Some jobs are being lost due to takeovers, such as was the case at Twitter. Others such as Wayfair admit there is not enough money in people’s pockets.
In some cases the loss of these jobs are no great loss, such as in the case of Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading platform whose activities cause nothing but damage except for a minority of gamblers. The decline in online shopping is also affecting delivery companies. FedEx is cutting 10 per cent of its office staff. It is to be hoped that Mickey Mouse is not amongst the 7,000 Disney Corporation employees to lose their jobs .