Reply to post: Re: Can someone please explain...

Google security engineer says she was fired for daring to remind Googlers they do indeed have labor rights

martinusher Silver badge

Re: Can someone please explain...

Unions here were originally associated with socialism but many were taken over by gangsters and even today are run like a bit of a protection racket. A handful of unions are still tolerated, I'd guess because its something to point fingers at when you're promoting the latest piece of union busting legislation.

What you have in California as well as many other states is legislation that makes it a "right to work" state. This delightful bit of Doublespeak says that you don't have to give an employer any notice that you are quitting work and to even things out a bit any employer can fire you at any time for any reason or no reason at all. (The only bit that matters is whether its "for cause" because you won't get your meager unemployment pay.) Now, astute observers will notice that 'right to work' isn't even handed at all since an employer can easily blacklist an employee, someone who's often living hand to mouth anyway, while there's not a lot that an employee can do to a well prepared employer. (...and don't even think about bad mouthing them on Glassdoor....) Now if this staffer was organizing on behalf of a certified union and so on there might be some protection (but to get to that state requires completing a process akin to one of those medieval quests) but if she think that as an individual she has rights -- well "Welcome to the proletariat, oh person who thought they were part of some favored middle class".

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