In addition to antitrust scrutiny, the Big Tech is reckoning with increasing workforce revolt that is gradually becoming a threat to their business growth. Amazon, Apple and Facebook have recently had to deal with workers’ fight-back in forms of resignation, attempt to unionize and unusual protests.
These companies have for years kept their workers under total control, that apart from leaks, the companies had had little to nothing to worry about when it comes to employees’ behavior. But there is an evitable shift from the status quo that the companies are inadvertently bending the rules to accept.
On Christmas Eve, a group of Apple workers demanding better working conditions in the company’s stores, staged a walkout.
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The walkout had as much as 50 workers who the organizers said they called out of work on Friday, complaining about issues ranging from insufficient paid sick leave and a lack of pandemic hazard pay.
This is coming on the heels of Amazon’s settlement Agreement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which concedes some measures of unionization rights to the e-commerce giant’s workers.
Amazon workers, who have been in loggerheads with the company over their attempts to unionize, got a reprieve after the settlement allowed them the right to, among other things, organize a union around the company’s facilities, which Amazon previously forbids.
In its share of the employees’ troubles, Facebook has seen more workers challenge the status quo in 2021 than ever before. The bombshell of the year being the leak of concealed findings of the social media’s internal research by Frances Haugen, Facebook’s former product manager. The findings reveal that Facebook knows how much harm it causes but chooses to ignore it – choosing profit over morality. The revelation attracted a senate committee hearing with Haugen’s testimony.
In addition, Facebook has lost a bunch of talents this year. The decision of the employees to leave has been largely attributed to dissatisfaction with happenings in the company.
In August, the #AppleToo hashtag became a trend after the Apple Together worker group organized an online protest. The group which consists of anonymous accounts from current and former Apple employees, made hundreds of tweets alleging instances of verbal abuse, sexual harassment, pay equity issues and other problems at the company.
Janneke Parrish, a former corporate Apple employee who helped support organizers of the walkout, said that while those participating in Friday’s action represent a small fraction of Apple’s 80,000 employees in retail and beyond in the U.S., it is still “significant” to have workers speak out against the behemoth tech company.
“Apple workers are fed up with being unheard,” Parrish said, adding that Friday’s action aims to “make sure people are aware of how retail workers are being treated.”
Last month, Parrish filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming she was fired for helping coworkers share their experiences of sexism and other discrimination at Apple.
Parrish isn’t the only Apple employee who got fired for attempting to challenge the status quo. Ashley Gjøvik, a former Apple product manager, was terminated after attempting to organize workers, sharing stories of sexual harassment. She also filed an NLRB complaint against Apple.
The organizing group, Apple Together, asked people to support workers by boycotting Apple products on Christmas Eve.
Like Apple, Amazon has had growing complaints from its workers since the pandemic began. NLRB’s database shows that more than 75 complaints of unfair practices had been lodged against the Cupertino behemoth.
Google has been on and off the hook.
The firing of workers as a deterrent mechanism is proving not to dampen the spirit of others who have been coming out of the shadows. Though the employees’ fight-back has been largely seen as insignificant, the recent uptick and support from NLRB is indicating that the Big Tech will have a fresh concern to worry about.