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Once synonymous with relaxed dress codes, high salaries, and expansive benefits, tech companies are gaining a new reputation: killers of employee dissent.

The latest example is Alphabet Inc.’s Google firing four employees after the workers took part in activism on the job. The firings were reported earlier this week.

“Google has come a long way from its motto of ‘don’t be evil’ to its actions aggressively crushing employee activism,” said UNI General Secretary Christy Hoffman. “For all of the company’s technological vision, it appears to be blind to what makes a truly progressive workplace.”

The firings come after Google hired a union busting law firm in the United States and tried to stop workers in Zurich from holding a union meeting. After they led the Google Walkout for Change against sexual harassment in 2018, two employee organizers said they were pushed out of the company.

“We support Google workers’ organizing efforts, and we believe workers’ organizations play an important role in keeping the tech giant accountable on a number of social, labor, and environmental issues,” Hoffman added.

UNI Global Union has helped tech workers organize across Europe and Asia, and it is currently coordinating a broad-based alliance of Amazon employees.

Photo: Grendelkhan, Wikicommons