Judge: Google Must Turn Over Secret Anti-Union Campaign Docs

As a part of an ongoing investigation involving potentially unlawful retaliation in opposition to staff concerned in labor activism, Google should flip over a slew of paperwork linked to a stealthy anti-union marketing campaign it carried out again in 2019, a National Labor Review Board choose has ordered.

The tech big has been in authorized bother since December 2020, when the NLRB accused Google of illegally surveilling and retaliating in opposition to two staff who had been concerned in labor organizing, the likes of which is taken into account “protected activity” underneath the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. The NLRB’s grievance has since widened to incorporate the experiences of three further workers. Google not too long ago reached a settlement with one of many staff.

Per Motherboard, the corporate has now been ordered to open up to the NLRB 70 paperwork linked to what was creepily referred to as “Project Vivian,” an inside operation meant to push anti-union messaging throughout the firm. More particularly, the paperwork relate to technique devised by Google in coordination with IRI Consultants, a “labor relations” agency that Google employed to help it in its efforts to tamp down on organizing inside its ranks.

Google had beforehand tried to withhold the paperwork from inspection by claiming they represented “legally privileged communications.” Closer scrutiny by a court-appointed official not too long ago discovered that solely 9 out of 80 paperwork might be correctly categorised as privileged.

The paperwork, which aren’t open to the general public however will now be turned over to the NLRB courtroom, reportedly include “campaign materials prepared for distribution to employees, training materials for staff on how to campaign against unionization among persons they manage, anti-union messaging and message amplification advice for [Google], and updates on how the campaign is being viewed among employees and/or in various reports,” the outlet experiences.

Motherboard also previously reported on how companies like IRI Consultants are identified to create complete dossiers on workers as a part of their contract work—the likes of which embody creepy quantities of element, comparable to character and sentiment evaluation.

Google is, in fact, in good (or, extra precisely, dangerous) firm relating to its anti-union efforts. Corporations like Amazon and Tesla have been identified to employ equally aggressive ways.

We reached out to Google for touch upon this story and can replace it if the corporate responds.