The collective action was triggered by a report that their employer had awarded several top male executives accused of sexual misconduct multimillion-dollar exit packages. But their list of demands suggests the roots of the crisis go much deeper.
To me, it’s a reminder of just how outmoded American labor laws are, a primary area of my research these days. In fact, the underlying grievances that motivated the Google employees to walk out are emblematic of what’s prompting millions of American workers to feel they have lost their voice.
And unfortunately, U.S. labor law no longer has their back. The walkout by these non-union professionals at Google, however, might change that.
Five demands
The brief walkouts took place in about 40 Google offices including New York, London, Singapore and the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.
They followed a New York Times investigation that found that the search giant gave Andy Rubin, the creator of its Android mobile software, a US$90 million exit package despite a credible claim of sexual misconduct. The report said two other executives received similar treatment.
The leaders of the walkout presented a list of five demands on an Instagram page:
an end to forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination
a commitment to end pay and opportunity inequality
a publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency report
a clear, uniform, globally inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct safely and anonymously
promote the chief diversity officer to answer directly to the CEO and make recommendations directly to the board of directors. In addition, appoint an employee representative to the board.
The demands signal, in my view, a deep dissatisfaction with the lack of effective channels for reporting and resolving harassment claims, as well as a distrust of human resources, a department tasked with looking out for employees’ legal rights and enforcing company policies.
Workers losing their voice
The Google walkout has little precedent to help us understand what might happen next.
For one thing, it’s the first time employees at a high-tech company – with their free meals and on-site gyms – staged a public protest. For another, it spanned multiple countries, a feat that very few unions are able to pull off. Finally and perhaps most importantly, the demands put forward go well beyond those covered under U.S. labor law.
The thing that comes closest to it is the spontaneous strike by 25,000 executives, managers and employees at the Market Basket grocery chain in Massachusetts in 2014 to protest the firing of their CEO in a family dispute over strategy. After a six-week strike and a consumer boycott, the board capitulated and sold the company to the CEO. At the time, I called it the most successful strike of the 21st century.
Both Market Basket and Google are examples of outbursts of employee tensions that have long been simmering among the private workforce. In a recent national survey we conducted at MIT, a majority of workers said they don’t have as much of a voice as they believe they should on a range of issues, from compensation and benefits to protections against harassment and respect for their labor.