Kathryn Spiers distributed educational tools about labor rights.
Number Five
Google reportedly fired another employee for attempting to organize the company's workforce
Kathryn Spiers, who worked on platform security at Google, was investigated, placed on leave, and then fired for distributing information about labor issues through one of the company's internal communication channels, according to CNET. That makes Spiers the fifth employee that Google recently fired for working towards a union — a troubling sign for the future of big tech.
Learning Rights
Spiers was fired on Friday, according to her tweets. She shared the message she sent to Google employees that got her in so much trouble — a small infographic about workers' legal rights and the union-busting firm Google recently hired.
Hours after pushing the notification live they took my devices & put me on administrative leave. They then ‘investigated me’ and on Friday, after three weeks on admin leave, fired me for a policy they couldn’t explain.
Here's pic of the popup. pic.twitter.com/Ltfef8dSc0
— Kathryn Spiers (@eiais) December 17, 2019
Part of Spiers' job was creating internal tools like popups and notifications to keep Google employees updated on company news. She used that same mechanism to distribute the message that got her fired.
Company Line
Google provided an official statement to CNET that claimed the problem wasn't the content of the message — but rather that Spiers distributed a notification without the right authorization.
Given the growing tension between workers and Google's leadership, it's difficult to believe that's actually the case.
READ MORE: Google accused of firing another activist employee [CNET]
More on Google: Google Just Fired Four Union Organizers
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