Google workers fired amid organization efforts file retaliation complaint

Enlarge / Google's main headquarters. (credit: Cyrus Farivar)

Four former employees who say Google fired them in retaliation for their efforts to organize co-workers are planning legal action against the company. The workers allege the tech giant violated US labor law.

The employees-Laurence Berland, Paul Duke, Rebecca Rivers, and Sophie Waldman-jointly signed onto an open letter posted today outlining their grievances with their former employer.

"We participated in legally protected labor organizing, fighting to improve workplace conditions for all Google workers," they write. They also worked to "hold Google accountable for the impact on our workplace of its business decisions, policies, and practices on a range of topics." Those topics include protesting Google's work with US immigration enforcement agencies and the Department of Defense and protesting Google's work with the Chinese government, as well as a massive walkout of 20,000 Google employees last year to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment allegations against senior executives.

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