Google Flat-Out Refuses to Bargain With Workers, Prompting YouTube Music Strike

DigitalJacobin@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.ml – 301 points –
Google Flat-Out Refuses to Bargain With Workers, Prompting YouTube Music Strike
vice.com
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It sounds like your job requires no talent and you could be easily replaced. Is it so?

Just because there are other people out there who can do the same job as you (or them) doesn't mean that it takes no skill, nor that replacing them can be done at a snap of the fingers. But nobody is irreplaceable. That's how companies see their employees. Even you.

Of course everyone deserves a raise and I do hope they get everything they're asking for, but some people are more easily replaceable than others and in this case there might just be nothing stopping them from being replaced. It sucks, but Google isn't technically required to negotiate.

So? The whole point of organizing is that under capitalism, corporations hold way more bargaining power than individuals. Pointing out that a corporation isn't "required" to cooperate is basically a non-statement.

That's a very defeatist attitude. In this case Google can just sign the contract to another company, but unions do work historically.

They "work historically" because workers fought "illegally" for years for the rights and protections that exist today. I don't understand how this is defeatist. I'm all for worker power, and I'm glad these people are trying to push the needle further.

Pointing out that the current state of the law isn't on their side is either "defeatist" because it has some implicit is/ought bias or implies that they won't change anything, or it's meaningless because they already know what they're fighting against.