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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 5 december 2019
Workers fired from Google plan federal labor complaint

By RACHEL LERMAN tell employees to avoid
AP Technology Writer “disrupting the workday”
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — to debate politics or other
Four workers fired from topics. Some workers com-
Google last week are plain both moves were
planning to file a federal meant to discourage open
labor complaint against speech and crack down
the company, claiming it on employee pushback.
unfairly retaliated against Waldman and Duke
them for organizing work- helped create a petition
ers around social causes. earlier this year that called
The former employees for Google to refrain from
said Tuesday they are pre- bidding on a cloud com-
paring to file unfair labor puting contract with U.S.
practice charges with the Customs and Border Patrol.
National Labor Relations Nearly 1,500 employees
Board this week. signed the petition, which
All four were fired Nov. 25 said CBP had “engaged
for what Google said were in human rights abuses” at
violations of its data secu- the southern border and
rity policy. that Google should not
Company officials wrote work with the agency.
in a memo — without Rivers and Berland also
confirming the employ- helped spread the peti-
ees’ names — that the tion, and Berland has been
four were “searching for, involved in organizing
accessing, and distribut- In this Oct. 31, 2018, file photo shows signage outside the offices of Google in San Francisco with other campaigns at the
ing business information the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the background. company, including those
outside the scope of their Associated Press involving LGBTQ rights.
jobs.” All four say they were ques-
But the four workers — power.” walked out of work last projects. The company tioned by Google officials
Laurence Berland, Sophie Google disputes that they year to protest the com- has also been known for in the past few months for
Waldman, Rebecca Riv- fired the employees for or- pany’s handling of sexual an open, collaborative sharing or accessing inter-
ers and Paul Duke — say ganizing activity. misconduct claims, in what work culture since its early nal documents.
they believe they did not “No one has been dis- became known as the days, one that employee Two say they were placed
violate company policies missed for raising concerns Google Walkout. activists say is now getting on administrative leave
and claim that Google is or debating the compa- Since then, employees closed off. last month.
using the alleged violations ny’s activities,” the com- have petitioned for better CEO Sundar Pichai’s week- The company said it found
as an excuse to terminate pany said in a statement. benefits for contract work- ly question-and-answer one worker set up notifica-
them for labor activity. Google employees are ers, successfully argued sessions with employees tions to be alerted about
“This is an expression of known for being some for the end of mandatory became monthly meet- other employees’ calen-
Google’s management of the most outspoken arbitration and have op- ings. dar changes, which made
power,” Duke said. across the tech industry. posed Google’s involve- Google also updated its those employees feel un-
“They are scared of worker Thousands of employees ment in some government community guidelines to safe. q

Huawei moving U.S. research center to Canada

BEIJING (AP) — The curbs in May on its access Canada will be the cen-
founder of Huawei says to American components ter,” Ren said in a video
the Chinese tech giant is and technology. excerpt of the interview on
moving its U.S. research The Trump administration the Globe and Mail web-
center to Canada due announced a 90-day re- site. “According to the U.S.
to American sanctions on prieve on some sales to ban, we couldn’t commu-
the company. Huawei. The government nicate with, call, email or
In an interview with To- said that would apply to contact our own employ-
ronto’s Global and Mail components and technol- ees in the United States.”
newspaper, Ren Zhengfei ogy needed to support Huawei, China’s first global
said the move was nec- wireless networks in rural tech brand, is scrambling
essary because Huawei areas. to preserve its business in
would be blocked from Ren gave no details but the face of possible loss
interacting with U.S. em- Huawei confirmed in June of access to U.S. compo-
ployees. it had cut 600 jobs at its Sili- nents, which threatens to
Huawei Technologies con Valley research center damage its smartphone In this Nov. 20, 2019, photo, customers shop at a Huawei store
Ltd. is the No. 2 global in Santa Clara, California, business. at a shopping mall in Beijing.
smartphone brand and leaving about 250 employ- Huawei, headquartered in Associated Press
the biggest maker of ees. A Huawei spokesman the southern city of Shen-
network gear for phone said the company had no zhen, also operates re- started selling a folding pany also has unveiled its
carriers. U.S. authorities further comment. search and development smartphone, the Mate X, own smartphone operat-
say the company is a se- “The research and devel- centers in Germany, India, made without U.S.-sup- ing system it says can re-
curity risk, which Huawei opment center will move Sweden and Turkey. plied processor chips or place Google’s Android if
denies, and announced from the United States, and In November, Huawei Google apps. The com- necessary.q