Google Urged the US to Limit Protection for Activist Workers

Google has been quietly urging the US government to narrow legal protection for workers organizing online. During the Obama administration, the National Labor Relations Board broadened employees’ rights to use their workplace email system to organize around issues on the job. In a 2014 case, Purple Communications, the agency restricted companies from punishing employees for using their workplace email systems for activities like circulating petitions or fomenting walkouts, as well as trying to form a union. In filings in May 2017 and November 2018, Google urged the National Labor Relations Board to undo that precedent and a George W Bush-era precedent—allowing companies to ban organizing on their employee email systems—should be reinstated.