
Google Contractors Are Unionizing with a Steel Workers Union - t23
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evjxjm/google-contractors-are-unionizing-with-a-steel-workers-union
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aurizon
As long as google is free to hire union or non union workers, this is OK with
me. What I hate are civic locked shops. There was a charity here that sold
donated used clothes. They were there for 15-20 years and did well for their
charities. Donated space, donated used clothing - what could go wrong?

Well, the workers joined a union, the city one, and signed an agreement and
carried on. Then the next time they needed a breaker reset, they had to call
the union, same with fluorescent tubes and many other trivial things. Well, no
problem - called breaker reset - all is well. A week later the bill came in. 2
men and a truck for a minimum of 4 hours plus time in transit - it came to
over $1000. This was abetted by the union steward who found someting on a
weekly basis. Patching drywall - same thing, 2 men, but there is a
complication, drywallers are not painters, yep 2 painters, 4 hours etc etc. A
few small drywall holes cost somewhere over $2500 to fix. Many other tasks
also needed the same treatment, tap washers were real killers. In 6 months
they went into a negative cash flow and all 15 of the people were laid off.
Since it was a donated space with only used clothes as assets, there was no
severance for these folks. They got their unemployment insurance, but that was
it.

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sarcasmatwork
As I've said it before, Intel, HP, Microsoft any many more use contract
workers for extended periods vs hiring someone as a full time employee. A very
clear misclassification
([https://www.dol.gov/whd/workers/misclassification/](https://www.dol.gov/whd/workers/misclassification/))
that has gone on far to long with these companies.

The huge companies hire contract workers so they can get a tax advantage,
while saying the work/job is temp which it is not. A lie that keeps on going.
From my exp contractor will get lower pay, no perks, all while doing same or
similar work as full time employee. Its an abuse that needs to be fixed at the
federal level.

I dont like the idea of a union, but if it helps us maybe thats what needs to
happen.

