YouTube Music的这些员工缘何遭到火速开除？
2023年2月21日，杰克·本尼迪克特在德州奥斯丁市中心谷歌办公室门前与示威游行大军一道抗议。图片来源：JAY JANNER-USA TODAY NETWORK在得知自己失去了YouTube Music的工作之后，杰克·本尼迪克特回到了办公室，但只拿到了一个纸盒箱子，里面装着一些个人物品，还是其工友在他被请出大楼时往里面塞的。本尼迪克特对《财富》杂志说，这个团队由约40名雇员组成，在得知自己的聘用合同已经终止而且仅有30分钟收拾各自物品之后，大多数队员已经离开了大楼。25岁的本尼迪克特刚从市政厅回来，却无法上工位收拾自己的物品，并称自己之后也无法再进入大楼。
上周，有十几位加入工会的YouTube Music内容运营团队员工在参加奥斯丁市议会听证会之后失去了自己的工作，其中包括本尼迪克特。他们在听证会上嘲讽地介绍了自己的工作，谈到了谷歌（Google）和高知特（Cognizant，美国国家劳资关系委员会（NLRB）已决定成为其联合雇主）拒绝与其工会谈判，而员工将这一行为称之为对工会的非法破坏。就在本尼迪克特作证时，他的同时凯蒂·马切纳告知了这一突如其来的消息：“公司刚刚把我们所有人都开了。我们的工作岗位今天取消，立即生效。”本尼迪克特的视频被外界疯传，视频中的他表现得非常震惊。（在收到置评请求后，高知特发言人杰夫·德玛瑞斯称，如果本尼迪克特“在取回没拿走的个人物品方面需要帮助，我们很快就能安排。”）
自这些员工首次加入工会以来，谷歌已经在起诉NLRB有关其作为联合雇主的决定。根据这一决定，谷歌有义务与这些员工进行协商。到目前为止，劳资关系委员会站在雇员这一边。
本尼迪克特经历了漫长的努力才走到了谈判桌前。他对《财富》杂志说，他和他前同事的职责突然遭到了取消，现如今被外包给了印度的同事，而且公司让本尼迪克特及其同事负责培训这些印度员工。本尼迪克特说：“公司是在奥斯丁办公室员工首次罢工抗议回公司办公之后才招聘了这些印度员工。”他还表示，最终YouTube Music的雇员被迫自掘坟墓。
本尼迪克特称，公司告诉雇员，海外团队将在美国假日或工会罢工期间负担这部分工作。然而，“公司似乎让我们去培训这些用于取代我们的员工。”他还表示，这一举措让人“异常沮丧”，而且此举表明，“谷歌和高知特对其产品毫不在乎。”
高知特否认了公司是因为报复而解雇员工，而且明确了公司对工会的看法。高知特发言人杰夫·德玛瑞斯表示：“尽管我们尊重员工加入工会的权利，但我们奉行的理念在于，坦诚布公的对话与合作才能产生最好的效果。”他还表示，他“首先会挑战你，要求你停止在报告中使用像‘员工’这类倾向性较强的术语和其他标准用词。”德玛瑞斯随后称，《财富》杂志过去曾使用不同的术语来称呼工会和非工会员工。
这两家公司质疑了YouTube Music员工叙述中的一些重要内容。当提及谁负责与工会谈判以及由谁来终止合同时，谷歌将责任推的一干二净，而高知特则对员工被全部解雇这一说法提出了异议。
谷歌公司的一位代表告诉《财富》杂志，YouTube Music团队成员并非是谷歌雇员，而且“高知特负责这些员工的聘用合同，包括人员配置。”这位发言人称，谷歌并没有反对员工加入工会，但称公司计划起诉NLRB的联合雇主裁决。
谷歌称，福利和外包培训流程的取消是高知特单方面的职责和选择。谷歌一位发言人表示：“长期以来，我们与工会化的供应商签订了很多合同，而且我们期待每一家与我们签约的公司都能公平对待其雇员，这一点与这家企业是否成立了工会无关。我们不会因为供应商是否有工会员工而选择供应商或更改合约，而且我们不会因员工选择加入工会而区别对待。”
NLRB发言人向《财富》杂志透露，当前共有11个起诉高知特和谷歌的未决不公平劳动实践官司。当被要求对这些指控进行回应时，德玛瑞斯称，“所有与NLRB相关的事件都将在法庭上讨论，这类话题适合在那里探讨。”谷歌并没有回答这一问题。
Alphabet员工工会-美国通讯工作者协会（AWU-CWA）在一份提交给《财富》杂志的声明中称，作为对上周事件的回应，AWU-CWA向NLRB提交了另一份不公平劳动实践起诉，对象为谷歌和高知特。工会是代表YouTube Music被裁团队提出了这一起诉，称“员工被谷歌和高知特以非法手段终止了雇佣关系，为的是报复他们的工会组建行为。”
外包指控
德玛瑞斯并未对用印度员工替代奥斯丁员工的说法发表意见，这件事情还涉及TikTok，但他称这些员工并未被辞退，而是“进入了高知特可部署人才池，并获得了7周的专属带薪时间，来熟悉机构内部的其他职责，并通过我们的培训生态系统获取新的技能。”
YouTube Music员工一直都在申请进行谈判，到目前为止已经持续了约一年的时间。这些员工希望得到更好的薪资、福利和更加灵活的工作，但却未能让其雇主走上谈判桌。对于本尼迪克特来说，突如其来的下岗只不过是这个持续了一年进程的最新进展。他对《财富》杂志说：“我们不会就这么放弃，我们肯定会斗争到底。我们要讨回公道。我觉得，我们的雇主或前雇主希望看到的是，我们能够接受这一结果并淡忘这件事情。”他说，在公道方面，如今还没有一个明确的说法，但他发誓工会会采取反击措施。
本尼迪克特表示：“我觉得令所有人感到异常厌恶的是，自己的辛劳得不到报酬，自己的工作丢了，但公司的利润却创下了历史新高。确实存在问题，而且真的是需要改变。我希望我们的活动能够帮助改变这一切。”（谷歌母公司Alphabet去年报出了创纪录的第四季度净收益，207亿美元，不过其年净收益峰值出现在2021年， 760亿美元。）
本尼迪克特在领英（LinkedIn）上称，当他最初于2022年9月加入YouTube Music完全远程办公时，工会组建举措已经在酝酿当中。去年4月，员工以41-1票通过，由美国通讯工作者协会代表其权益。本尼迪克特说，在团队公布其举措后不久，谷歌和高知特宣布了新的每周五天回公司办公强制令。他解释说，对于团队里很多并不住在奥斯丁甚至德州的成员来说，新政策“基本上就是下岗令”。他还表示，作为回应，这些员工举行了罢工活动。高知特发言人德玛瑞斯称，公司“自2021年12月以来就一直在与常驻奥斯丁的雇员沟通回公司办公的政策。有关这一时间线的其他描述都是虚构和不实的。”
高知特和谷歌相互甩锅，YouTube Music员工成为牺牲品
谷歌和高知特称，他们并没有终止雇员合同，而是合同自然到期。高知特发言人德玛瑞斯对《财富》杂志说，合约到期在此前就已纳入计划。
然而，本尼迪克特指着自己在市政厅视频中受惊吓的模样称，这是“彻彻底底的裁员”。他对《财富》杂志说：“我们完全不知道会发生这种事情。”本尼迪克特称，即便是带有合同的临时工作，工会在其引导下以为与谷歌的合约会得到续签。本尼迪克特说，谷歌在开展其他裁员工作时通常会在数个月前发布通知，但只给了YouTube Music员工30分钟离开办公室的时间。
工会相信本尼迪克特的说辞。“谷歌和高知特称，YouTube Music内容运营团队上周四发生的事情是业务过程中常见的计划内合约到期。AWU-CWA在向财富提交的一份声明中指出，事实上，公司在中午的时候便通知员工其工作岗位取消了，立即生效，而且为其收拾个人物品设定了时限”。
这两家雇主相互推卸责任，而遭殃的却是前YouTube Music团队。本尼迪克特说：“其意图可谓是非常之明显，它们正企图瓦解我们的工会。我认为，更明显的一个事实在于，他们让我们来培训印度的一个团队来做同样的事情，而且即便谷歌的合约到期了，但这个团队并未失去其工作。只有奥斯丁加入工会的员工被谷歌和高知特炒了鱿鱼。”
高知特依然认为，前YouTube Music团队并未被解雇，而是“将成为高知特可部署人才池的一部分，也就是进入公司的‘替补席’。”德玛瑞斯称，“数千名高知特雇员都是通过替补席穿梭于各个活跃项目中”，而且他自己团队的两名成员也是来自于替补席。
然而，本尼迪克特认为，这种替补席只不过是裁员前的集中营。他说：“我从来没听说过有人在进入替补席之后重新获得聘用。”他还表示，替补席本身并非是谈论的“重点”，重点在于，工会成员争取的是自己的本职工作岗位，他们原本接受的就是这方面的培训或有这方面的专长。
本尼迪克特表示，整个合约系统似乎刻意隐瞒了员工权益负责方的信息。“他们似乎故意设计成这样……借此，谷歌和高知特就可以相互指责，规避谈判责任。”他解释说，很难从这两家公司找到一个具体负责人进行沟通，而且工会过去在索要信息时还收到过只包含一个词的回复。作为回应，高知特称：“奥斯丁办公室每周都会定期召开面对面的站立会议，因此‘很难与具体负责人对话’的言辞并不真切。”他还表示，本尼迪克特“在公司通知员工合同到期那天（也就是每周定期召开的面对面站立会议期间），是他自己选择不去办公室。”谷歌对《财富》杂志说，与员工沟通是高知特的职责。
承包方向公司发难
在各类棘手的裁员现象发生一年之前，科技行业并非完全是外界所描述的那样美轮美奂，对于承包商来说尤为如此。本尼迪克特说：“有人认为，因为我们为YouTube工作，或者我们在科技行业工作，因此我们能达到六位数的薪资，福利超好，而且完全居家办公。”然而，这种刻板印象与当前的现状可谓是天差地别。
本尼迪克特每周在办公室工作五天，时薪略高于19美元。本尼迪克特称，员工们不仅要面对这个城市的高物价以及残酷的通勤，还失去了福利，因为在疾控中心宣布疫情结束之后，公司取消了40小时的带薪病假，而且很多员工都在带病上班。德玛瑞斯并没有回复病假政策的问题。谷歌则重申，与福利有关的政策与他们无关，是高知特的职责。
本尼迪克特说：“员工们都已经入不敷出。”他还表示，一些雇员是单亲父母，而且很多人为了贴补家用不得不兼职多份工作。本尼迪克特称，即便通胀肆虐，但薪资自2019年，也就是项目开始以来，没有多大变化。
然而，本尼迪克特及其前同事对于继续斗争充满了干劲。他告诉其他科技工作者“工会斗争绝对物有所值”，而且“加入斗争的人越多，那么我们就更有可能去改变这一克扣我们工资的体制。”
本尼迪克特此前曾在威斯康辛州的一个小镇的仓库工作过，这个仓库当时也在组建工会。他认为，这对于各个年龄段的工人阶层来说都是一个趋势。经济政策研究所智囊团的一篇报告发现，重大罢工活动数量在去年飙升了280%。本尼迪克特解释说，有鉴于全美汽车工人联合会（UAW）、美国作家协会（WGA）和美国演员工会与美国电视和广播艺人联合会（SAG-AFTRA）在过去的胜利概率，令人感到振奋的是，YouTube Music员工的付出已经“为承包商和临时工的权益奠定了些许基础。”
YouTube Music的团队十分年轻，尤为动荡的经济以及雇主雇员之间社会契约的崩塌让这一代人苦不堪言。本尼迪克特在谈及大学学费、房租以及房屋购买成本不断攀升时称，“对我们来说，整个体制都不友好”。
本尼迪克特在谈到自己这一代人时表示：“我们所处的这个世界并不利于我们获得成功，对于所有那些普通上班族来说都是如此。”他还表示，他希望斗争到底，并为世界贡献自己的力量。本尼迪克特说：“人们真的是很失望，而且我觉得我们很快就会看到一些积极的变化。”（财富中文网）
译者：冯丰
审校：夏林
在得知自己失去了YouTube Music的工作之后，杰克·本尼迪克特回到了办公室，但只拿到了一个纸盒箱子，里面装着一些个人物品，还是其工友在他被请出大楼时往里面塞的。本尼迪克特对《财富》杂志说，这个团队由约40名雇员组成，在得知自己的聘用合同已经终止而且仅有30分钟收拾各自物品之后，大多数队员已经离开了大楼。25岁的本尼迪克特刚从市政厅回来，却无法上工位收拾自己的物品，并称自己之后也无法再进入大楼。
上周，有十几位加入工会的YouTube Music内容运营团队员工在参加奥斯丁市议会听证会之后失去了自己的工作，其中包括本尼迪克特。他们在听证会上嘲讽地介绍了自己的工作，谈到了谷歌（Google）和高知特（Cognizant，美国国家劳资关系委员会（NLRB）已决定成为其联合雇主）拒绝与其工会谈判，而员工将这一行为称之为对工会的非法破坏。就在本尼迪克特作证时，他的同时凯蒂·马切纳告知了这一突如其来的消息：“公司刚刚把我们所有人都开了。我们的工作岗位今天取消，立即生效。”本尼迪克特的视频被外界疯传，视频中的他表现得非常震惊。（在收到置评请求后，高知特发言人杰夫·德玛瑞斯称，如果本尼迪克特“在取回没拿走的个人物品方面需要帮助，我们很快就能安排。”）
自这些员工首次加入工会以来，谷歌已经在起诉NLRB有关其作为联合雇主的决定。根据这一决定，谷歌有义务与这些员工进行协商。到目前为止，劳资关系委员会站在雇员这一边。
本尼迪克特经历了漫长的努力才走到了谈判桌前。他对《财富》杂志说，他和他前同事的职责突然遭到了取消，现如今被外包给了印度的同事，而且公司让本尼迪克特及其同事负责培训这些印度员工。本尼迪克特说：“公司是在奥斯丁办公室员工首次罢工抗议回公司办公之后才招聘了这些印度员工。”他还表示，最终YouTube Music的雇员被迫自掘坟墓。
本尼迪克特称，公司告诉雇员，海外团队将在美国假日或工会罢工期间负担这部分工作。然而，“公司似乎让我们去培训这些用于取代我们的员工。”他还表示，这一举措让人“异常沮丧”，而且此举表明，“谷歌和高知特对其产品毫不在乎。”
高知特否认了公司是因为报复而解雇员工，而且明确了公司对工会的看法。高知特发言人杰夫·德玛瑞斯表示：“尽管我们尊重员工加入工会的权利，但我们奉行的理念在于，坦诚布公的对话与合作才能产生最好的效果。”他还表示，他“首先会挑战你，要求你停止在报告中使用像‘员工’这类倾向性较强的术语和其他标准用词。”德玛瑞斯随后称，《财富》杂志过去曾使用不同的术语来称呼工会和非工会员工。
这两家公司质疑了YouTube Music员工叙述中的一些重要内容。当提及谁负责与工会谈判以及由谁来终止合同时，谷歌将责任推的一干二净，而高知特则对员工被全部解雇这一说法提出了异议。
谷歌公司的一位代表告诉《财富》杂志，YouTube Music团队成员并非是谷歌雇员，而且“高知特负责这些员工的聘用合同，包括人员配置。”这位发言人称，谷歌并没有反对员工加入工会，但称公司计划起诉NLRB的联合雇主裁决。
谷歌称，福利和外包培训流程的取消是高知特单方面的职责和选择。谷歌一位发言人表示：“长期以来，我们与工会化的供应商签订了很多合同，而且我们期待每一家与我们签约的公司都能公平对待其雇员，这一点与这家企业是否成立了工会无关。我们不会因为供应商是否有工会员工而选择供应商或更改合约，而且我们不会因员工选择加入工会而区别对待。”
NLRB发言人向《财富》杂志透露，当前共有11个起诉高知特和谷歌的未决不公平劳动实践官司。当被要求对这些指控进行回应时，德玛瑞斯称，“所有与NLRB相关的事件都将在法庭上讨论，这类话题适合在那里探讨。”谷歌并没有回答这一问题。
Alphabet员工工会-美国通讯工作者协会（AWU-CWA）在一份提交给《财富》杂志的声明中称，作为对上周事件的回应，AWU-CWA向NLRB提交了另一份不公平劳动实践起诉，对象为谷歌和高知特。工会是代表YouTube Music被裁团队提出了这一起诉，称“员工被谷歌和高知特以非法手段终止了雇佣关系，为的是报复他们的工会组建行为。”
外包指控
德玛瑞斯并未对用印度员工替代奥斯丁员工的说法发表意见，这件事情还涉及TikTok，但他称这些员工并未被辞退，而是“进入了高知特可部署人才池，并获得了7周的专属带薪时间，来熟悉机构内部的其他职责，并通过我们的培训生态系统获取新的技能。”
YouTube Music员工一直都在申请进行谈判，到目前为止已经持续了约一年的时间。这些员工希望得到更好的薪资、福利和更加灵活的工作，但却未能让其雇主走上谈判桌。对于本尼迪克特来说，突如其来的下岗只不过是这个持续了一年进程的最新进展。他对《财富》杂志说：“我们不会就这么放弃，我们肯定会斗争到底。我们要讨回公道。我觉得，我们的雇主或前雇主希望看到的是，我们能够接受这一结果并淡忘这件事情。”他说，在公道方面，如今还没有一个明确的说法，但他发誓工会会采取反击措施。
本尼迪克特表示：“我觉得令所有人感到异常厌恶的是，自己的辛劳得不到报酬，自己的工作丢了，但公司的利润却创下了历史新高。确实存在问题，而且真的是需要改变。我希望我们的活动能够帮助改变这一切。”（谷歌母公司Alphabet去年报出了创纪录的第四季度净收益，207亿美元，不过其年净收益峰值出现在2021年， 760亿美元。）
本尼迪克特在领英（LinkedIn）上称，当他最初于2022年9月加入YouTube Music完全远程办公时，工会组建举措已经在酝酿当中。去年4月，员工以41-1票通过，由美国通讯工作者协会代表其权益。本尼迪克特说，在团队公布其举措后不久，谷歌和高知特宣布了新的每周五天回公司办公强制令。他解释说，对于团队里很多并不住在奥斯丁甚至德州的成员来说，新政策“基本上就是下岗令”。他还表示，作为回应，这些员工举行了罢工活动。高知特发言人德玛瑞斯称，公司“自2021年12月以来就一直在与常驻奥斯丁的雇员沟通回公司办公的政策。有关这一时间线的其他描述都是虚构和不实的。”
高知特和谷歌相互甩锅，YouTube Music员工成为牺牲品
谷歌和高知特称，他们并没有终止雇员合同，而是合同自然到期。高知特发言人德玛瑞斯对《财富》杂志说，合约到期在此前就已纳入计划。
然而，本尼迪克特指着自己在市政厅视频中受惊吓的模样称，这是“彻彻底底的裁员”。他对《财富》杂志说：“我们完全不知道会发生这种事情。”本尼迪克特称，即便是带有合同的临时工作，工会在其引导下以为与谷歌的合约会得到续签。本尼迪克特说，谷歌在开展其他裁员工作时通常会在数个月前发布通知，但只给了YouTube Music员工30分钟离开办公室的时间。
工会相信本尼迪克特的说辞。“谷歌和高知特称，YouTube Music内容运营团队上周四发生的事情是业务过程中常见的计划内合约到期。AWU-CWA在向财富提交的一份声明中指出，事实上，公司在中午的时候便通知员工其工作岗位取消了，立即生效，而且为其收拾个人物品设定了时限”。
这两家雇主相互推卸责任，而遭殃的却是前YouTube Music团队。本尼迪克特说：“其意图可谓是非常之明显，它们正企图瓦解我们的工会。我认为，更明显的一个事实在于，他们让我们来培训印度的一个团队来做同样的事情，而且即便谷歌的合约到期了，但这个团队并未失去其工作。只有奥斯丁加入工会的员工被谷歌和高知特炒了鱿鱼。”
高知特依然认为，前YouTube Music团队并未被解雇，而是“将成为高知特可部署人才池的一部分，也就是进入公司的‘替补席’。”德玛瑞斯称，“数千名高知特雇员都是通过替补席穿梭于各个活跃项目中”，而且他自己团队的两名成员也是来自于替补席。
然而，本尼迪克特认为，这种替补席只不过是裁员前的集中营。他说：“我从来没听说过有人在进入替补席之后重新获得聘用。”他还表示，替补席本身并非是谈论的“重点”，重点在于，工会成员争取的是自己的本职工作岗位，他们原本接受的就是这方面的培训或有这方面的专长。
本尼迪克特表示，整个合约系统似乎刻意隐瞒了员工权益负责方的信息。“他们似乎故意设计成这样……借此，谷歌和高知特就可以相互指责，规避谈判责任。”他解释说，很难从这两家公司找到一个具体负责人进行沟通，而且工会过去在索要信息时还收到过只包含一个词的回复。作为回应，高知特称：“奥斯丁办公室每周都会定期召开面对面的站立会议，因此‘很难与具体负责人对话’的言辞并不真切。”他还表示，本尼迪克特“在公司通知员工合同到期那天（也就是每周定期召开的面对面站立会议期间），是他自己选择不去办公室。”谷歌对《财富》杂志说，与员工沟通是高知特的职责。
承包方向公司发难
在各类棘手的裁员现象发生一年之前，科技行业并非完全是外界所描述的那样美轮美奂，对于承包商来说尤为如此。本尼迪克特说：“有人认为，因为我们为YouTube工作，或者我们在科技行业工作，因此我们能达到六位数的薪资，福利超好，而且完全居家办公。”然而，这种刻板印象与当前的现状可谓是天差地别。
本尼迪克特每周在办公室工作五天，时薪略高于19美元。本尼迪克特称，员工们不仅要面对这个城市的高物价以及残酷的通勤，还失去了福利，因为在疾控中心宣布疫情结束之后，公司取消了40小时的带薪病假，而且很多员工都在带病上班。德玛瑞斯并没有回复病假政策的问题。谷歌则重申，与福利有关的政策与他们无关，是高知特的职责。
本尼迪克特说：“员工们都已经入不敷出。”他还表示，一些雇员是单亲父母，而且很多人为了贴补家用不得不兼职多份工作。本尼迪克特称，即便通胀肆虐，但薪资自2019年，也就是项目开始以来，没有多大变化。
然而，本尼迪克特及其前同事对于继续斗争充满了干劲。他告诉其他科技工作者“工会斗争绝对物有所值”，而且“加入斗争的人越多，那么我们就更有可能去改变这一克扣我们工资的体制。”
本尼迪克特此前曾在威斯康辛州的一个小镇的仓库工作过，这个仓库当时也在组建工会。他认为，这对于各个年龄段的工人阶层来说都是一个趋势。经济政策研究所智囊团的一篇报告发现，重大罢工活动数量在去年飙升了280%。本尼迪克特解释说，有鉴于全美汽车工人联合会（UAW）、美国作家协会（WGA）和美国演员工会与美国电视和广播艺人联合会（SAG-AFTRA）在过去的胜利概率，令人感到振奋的是，YouTube Music员工的付出已经“为承包商和临时工的权益奠定了些许基础。”
YouTube Music的团队十分年轻，尤为动荡的经济以及雇主雇员之间社会契约的崩塌让这一代人苦不堪言。本尼迪克特在谈及大学学费、房租以及房屋购买成本不断攀升时称，“对我们来说，整个体制都不友好”。
本尼迪克特在谈到自己这一代人时表示：“我们所处的这个世界并不利于我们获得成功，对于所有那些普通上班族来说都是如此。”他还表示，他希望斗争到底，并为世界贡献自己的力量。本尼迪克特说：“人们真的是很失望，而且我觉得我们很快就会看到一些积极的变化。”（财富中文网）
译者：冯丰
审校：夏林
Jack Benedict marches in a picket line in front of Google offices in downtown Austin, Texas, on Feb. 21, 2023.
Shortly after he learned he no longer had a job with YouTube Music, Jack Benedict went back to his office to be met by a cardboard box of some of his stuff that co-workers had thrown together while being ushered out. Most of the team of around 40 employees had already left the building, having learned their contracts had ended and that they’d been given 30 minutes to leave, Benedict tells Fortune. Coming from the city hall, Benedict, 25, was unable to enter his workplace to collect the rest of his things, and says he has yet to be able to re-enter.
Last week, Benedict was one of several dozen unionized workers on the YouTube Music Content Operations Team who found out that they were losing their jobs while testifying to Austin City Council. They were speaking, ironically, about their work—the refusal of Google and Cognizant, whom the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had determined to be their joint employers, to negotiate with their union, which the workers claimed was illegal union-busting. While Benedict was testifying, his co-worker Katie Marschener relayed the sudden news: “They just laid us all off. Our jobs are ended today, effective immediately,” Marschener said. The video of Benedict, obviously surprised, went viral. (Reached for comment, Cognizant spokesperson Jeff DeMarrais said if Benedict “needs help retrieving his things [left behind], that can be arranged very quickly.”)
Since the workers first joined the union, Google has appealed the NLRB’s decision that they are joint employers, which obligates the company to bargain with them, with the board siding with the employees so far.
After a long push to get to the bargaining table, Benedict told Fortune that not only were his and his former co-workers’ roles suddenly eliminated, but they’ve now been outsourced to workers in India whom Benedict and his colleagues were instructed to train. Those workers were hired after the Austin worker’s first strike last year over returning to the office, says Benedict. Essentially, in his telling, YouTube Music employees were forced to dig their own grave.
According to Benedict, the employees were told that the overseas team would cover whenever there was an American holiday or a union strike. But “it appears that they were having us train our own replacements for the job,” he says, adding that it’s “incredibly frustrating” and it suggests that “Google and Cognizant really don’t care about their products.”
Cognizant denied that it fired workers in retaliation, while making its opinions regarding the union drive clear. “While we respect the right of our associates to unionize, our philosophy is that we work best together with direct open dialogue and collaboration,” Cognizant spokesperson Jeff DeMarrais said, adding that he’d “like to first challenge you to stop using charged terms like ‘workers’ and other standard rhetoric in your reporting.” DeMarrais then claimed that Fortune has historically used different terms to refer to union and non-union labor.
Both companies challenge certain key parts of the account of the YouTube Music workers. When it comes to who is responsible for negotiating with the union and who terminated them, Google shirks responsibility. Cognizant, on the other hand, challenges the notion that workers were laid off entirely.
A representative from Google told Fortune that members of the YouTube Music team weren’t Google employees and that “Cognizant is responsible for these workers’ employment terms, including staffing.” The spokesperson added that Google had no objections to the unionization, but said the company plans to appeal NLRB’s joint-employer ruling.
Google added that removal of benefits and outsourcing training process is Cognizant’s sole domain and choice. “We’ve long had many contracts with unionized suppliers and we expect everyone who we contract with to treat their employees fairly, whether they are unionized or not,” a spokesperson from Google said. “We do not select or alter contracts based on whether our suppliers have unionized workforces and we do not treat anyone differently if they choose to join a union or not.”
There are currently 11 open unfair labor practice charges filed against Cognizant and Google, a spokesperson from the NLRB tells Fortune. When asked for a response to these charges, DeMarrais said that “all matters pertaining to the NLRB will be discussed in court, which is the appropriate forum for that conversation.” Google did not answer this question.
In response to last week’s incident, the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America (AWU-CWA) is filing another Unfair Labor Practice charge with the NLRB against Google and Cognizant, it said in a statement to Fortune. Pressing charges on behalf of the laid off team at YouTube Music, the union alleges that “workers were unlawfully terminated by Google and Cognizant in retaliation for their union organizing.”
The outsourcing allegation
DeMarrais did not address the claim that Austin-based workers were replaced by employees in India, which has also made the rounds on TikTok, but said that the workers weren’t laid off. Instead “they have become part of Cognizant’s deployable talent pool where they are given seven weeks of dedicated, paid time to explore other roles within the organization and build new skills through our training ecosystem.”
YouTube Music workers have been petitioning to negotiate for about a year now. Looking for better pay, benefits, and more flexible work, the workers struggled to get their employers to the bargaining table. For Benedict, the abrupt end to his job is just the latest development in a yearslong process. “They’re not done with us yet,” he tells Fortune. “We are absolutely going to keep fighting. We want justice. I think our employers, or former employers, would love it if we just moved on and forgot about it,” he adds. He says that what justice looks like isn’t clear right now, but vows that the union will push back.
“I think everyone’s pretty sick of not being paid for the hard work that they do, losing their jobs while the corporations make record profits,” Benedict asserts. “Something’s not right. And it really needs to change. I’m hoping that our campaign can help change that.” (Google parent Alphabet reported record net income in the fourth quarter of last year, at $20.7 billion, although its peak on an annual basis was $76 billion in 2021.)
The unionization effort was already brewing when Benedict first joined YouTube Music in a fully remote role in September 2022, according to his LinkedIn. Last April, workers voted 41-1 to be represented by Communications Workers of America. Shortly after the team went public with their efforts, Google and Cognizant announced a new five-days-a-week return to office mandate, according to Benedict. The new policy was “essentially a layoff for the many people on our team who didn’t live in Austin, or even Texas,” he explains, adding that they went on strike in response. Cognizant spokesperson DeMarrais said the company “communicated its return to office policy to our Austin-based employees repeatedly since December 2021. Any other depiction of that timeline is mythical and rhetoric.”
Cognizant and Google point fingers, YouTube Music workers ushered out
Both Google and Cognizant say that they didn’t terminate employees but that the contract ended naturally. DeMarrais, the Cognizant spokesperson, told Fortune that the contract’s end was pre-planned.
But Benedict says that it was “absolutely a layoff,” pointing to his shell-shocked demeanor in the City Hall video. “We had absolutely no idea that this was going to happen,” he tells Fortune. Even though it was a contract gig, according to Benedict, the union was led to believe the contract with Google would be renewed. Other Google layoffs typically involve giving months notice, but YouTube Music workers were given 30 minutes to leave the office, according to Benedict.
The union backs Benedict’s account. “Google and Cognizant have claimed that what happened last Thursday to the YouTube Music Content Operations Team was the planned expiration of a contract in the course of ’business as usual. In reality, workers were informed midday that their jobs were gone, effective immediately, and put on a timer to gather their belongings,” Alphabet Workers Union-CWA shares in a statement to Fortune.
But the former YouTube Music team is feeling the blow, even if both employers shunt blame to the other party. “It’s just a very, very obvious example that they are trying to bust our union. And I think it’s made even more obvious by the fact they had us train a team in India to do the same thing and that team did not lose their job” even when the Google contract ended, says Benedict. “Only the unionized people in Austin lost their job with Google and Cognizant.”
Cognizant maintains that the former YouTube Music team was not laid off, but “will become part of Cognizant’s deployable talent pool, better known as our ‘bench.’” DeMarrais said that “tens of thousands of Cognizant employees move between active projects via the bench,” and two members of his own team were hired from the bench.
But Benedict believes this bench is merely a holding pen before an eventual layoff. “We don’t know of anybody who’s ever been rehired from the bench,” he says. He adds that the bench itself is “besides the point,” noting that the union members were fighting for their specific jobs for which they were trained for and have expertise in.
And the entire contracting system appears to purposely cloud who is responsible for the worker’s rights, adds Benedict. “It seems to be their design … Google and Cognizant can point fingers at one another to avoid responsibility for negotiations.” He explains that it’s been hard to speak to any actual person from either company, and the union has in the past received one-word answers when requesting information. In response, Cognizant said “there were regular, in-person weekly standup meetings in the Austin office so it ‘being hard to speak to an actual person’ simply isn’t true.” He added that Benedict “chose not to be in the office on the day that our associates were notified of the contract expiry (during the regular, in-person weekly standup meetings).” Google told Fortune that communication was Cognizant’s responsibility.
Contractors challenge corporations
Even before a year of challenging layoffs, the tech world wasn’t exactly the dreamy world it was portrayed as, especially for contractors. “There’s the assumption that because we work for YouTube, or we work in tech that we made six figures, had amazing benefits, [and] work fully remote,” says Benedict. But the stereotype couldn’t be further from the situation at hand.
Working in-office five days a week, Benedict was paid only a little more than $19 an hour. Navigating an expensive city and a “brutal” commute, workers were also dealing with a loss of benefits as their 40 hours of paid sick leave were taken away when the CDC declared the pandemic over, and many workers came in sick, according to Benedict. DeMarrais did not respond to a question about the sick leave policy. Google, once again, said this policy regarding benefits was not in their domain but Cognizant’s.
“People were struggling to make ends meet,” says Benedict, adding that some employees were single parents and many worked multiple jobs to supplement their income. Even as inflation raged, wages had stayed at the same rate since 2019, when the project began, according to Benedict.
Still, Benedict and his former co-workers are motivated to keep pushing. He tells other tech workers “the union fight is absolutely worth it,” and that the “more people that join the fight, the more likely we are to change the system that is working to underpay us.”
Having previously worked in a warehouse in a small town in Wisconsin that was also unionizing, Benedict believes that this is a movement from working class people across generations. A report from the think tank the Economic Policy Institute found that major strike activity skytocked by 280% last year. Taking note from past wins of the UAW as well as WGA and SAG-AFTRA, Benedict explains it’s exciting that YouTube Music workers’ efforts have “la[id] some of the groundwork for the rights of contractors and temps.”
The team at YouTube Music is fairly young and feeling the generational burns of navigating an especially volatile economy and a crumbling social contract between employers and employees. “The system has been not good for us,” says Benedict, speaking of a ballooning price in college, rent, and affording housing.
“We’re coming into a world that’s not set up for us to succeed,” Benedict says of his generation, “as well as just anyone who’s doing some sort of working class job, it’s not working for them either.” Adding that he wants to keep fighting and hopes to do some good in the world, Benedict says “people are just fed up, and I think we’re gonna see some positive change coming real soon.”
