AUSTIN, Texas — Lawmakers are urging for an investigation into Google following allegations that it retaliated against unionizing workers.
The calls, led by Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas), come after YouTube Music contract workers found out they were laid off during an Austin City Council meeting earlier this year.
The workers, who were employed through Cognizant, became a union through the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA) and went on strike after citing unfair working conditions.
During a February city council meeting, YouTube Music worker Jack Benedict spoke before the council to support their cause toward bringing their employers to the negotiating table with their union. Instead, he and roughly 40 of his team members learned their contracts had ended during his speech.
"Absolutely no warning whatsoever. In fact, we were led to believe that our contract was going to get renewed," Benedict said. "[Google and Cognizant are] both equally responsible to come to the bargaining table and both had equal responsibility over our terms of employment."
Now 46 House Democrats are urging the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to investigate if the unionizing workers had their rights violated.
"Rich and powerful corporations like Google are seeing workers across the country rise up, organize, and win," Casar said. “The NLRB should quickly and thoroughly investigate if the rights of these workers, like the YouTube Music workers in my district, were violated. Union organizing and collective bargaining should be a right — not a fight.”
Google told KVUE in a statement that the situation was a "business-as-usual contract end" following the February incident. Cognizant echoed those sentiments saying, "Nobody was laid off ... A contract expired and the Austin-based employees are still Cognizant employees."
Cognizant added that through its bench policy program, employees are given seven weeks of paid time to explore other roles within the organization, and "continue to provide support to our associates as they find their next project." Benedict, however, disputes Google's statement that they were not their employees.
"The main reason that seeking joint employer was so important was so that they couldn't just cut the contract when they found out we unionized. So [Google has] been saying this, that we're not their employees legally. That's completely false.," Benedict said.
