NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | May 17, 2019 | PAGE 3
NATIONAL
Google retaliates over sexual
harassment walkout
Google employees respond with
May Day sit-ins
Members of International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1660 showed up to the Joint Ways and Means
Committee to hear a May 10 presentation about SB 1049-1, the bill that will cut employee compensation in order
to reduce employer contributions to the PERS system.
... PERS under attack
From Page 1
Account Program (IAP), a
401(k)-style “defined contribu-
tion” retirement savings plan.
The Kotek-Courtney diversion
would come out of the em-
ployee contribution to that IAP,
thus reducing the retirement
benefits they’d receive from
the IAP program. The proposal
would allow workers to restore
their retirement savings contri-
bution to 6 percent by taking
the difference out of their
wages. The IAP diversion
would end if the PERS sys-
tem’s “funded status” reaches
90 percent again. The Kotek-
Raymond Thomas
Cynthia Newton
Melissa Haggerty
Courtney proposal is contained
in Senate Bill 1049-1. The pro-
posal has several other ele-
ments. It would:
■ Pay down the unfunded liability over 22
years (instead of the current 20 years)
■ Cut in half in the interest rate used to
calculate annual benefits under the PERS
“Money Match” formula.
■ Limit the final salary used in benefits
calculations to $195,000, indexed for
inflation. [That would reduce benefits for
the highest-earning 0.8 percent of workers
in Tier 1 and 0.3 percent for Tier 2.]
■ Temporarily eliminate restrictions on
retirees returning to work from 2020 to
2024, and require employers to pay full
pension contributions on those returned
employees.
Senate Bill 1049-1 was
scheduled for a hearing late on
May 14, after this issue went to
press.
Governor Brown’s proposal
The Kotek-Courtney proposal
came after a proposal by Gov.
Kate Brown failed to find the
support of two-thirds of the
Legislature. Brown had pro-
posed to increase PERS assets
by adding $500 million from
next year’s “kicker” income tax
rebates and taking $1.4 billion
out of a large reserve fund held
by the State Accident Insurance
Fund (SAIF).
James Coon
Chris Frost
Sydney Montanaro
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disability benefits
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www.tcnf.legal
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
Remember the Google worker
walkout over sexual harassment
on the job — and company pay-
offs to harassers — six months
ago? Google did, and it’s retali-
ating against walkout leaders.
The workers did, too. On
May Day, hundreds staged sit-
ins at the Internet firm’s offices
in New York, London, Cam-
bridge, Mass., San Francisco,
Pittsburgh and elsewhere to de-
nounce that retaliation, which is
illegal under federal labor law.
A Google worker in New
York filed a labor-law-breaking
complaint with the National La-
bor Relations Board’s regional
office there on April 22. The
charges in that case are “retalia-
tion, discipline, discharge” for
being a walkout leader. It joins
an ongoing NLRB complaint
against Google.
More than 20,000 Google
workers worldwide walked out
last Nov. 1 after revelations of
sexual harassment on the job —
and news of a $90 million sev-
erance package paid to former
executive Andy Rubin, who had
forced a worker to perform oral
sex on him.
November walkout leaders
Meredith Whittaker and Claire
Stapleton told the Associated
Press about company retaliation
against them. Google cancelled
one of Whittaker’s projects,
costing her pay and bonuses.
She then led the May Day sit-
ins, too.
“Retaliation isn’t always ob-
vious,” said Stapleton in an e-
mail. “It’s often confusing and
drawn out, consisting of icy
conversations, gaslighting, proj-
ect cancellations, transition re-
jections, or demotions. Behavior
that tells someone the problem
isn’t that they stood up to the
company, it’s that they’re not
good enough and don’t belong.”
Stapleton was demoted, her
project was cancelled and she
was ordered to go on sick leave,
even though she wasn’t sick.
When she hired an attorney,
Google cancelled the demotion.
Delta Airlines faces public backlash
over anti-union leaflets
A set of anti-union leaflets put
out by Delta Airlines provoked
an online backlash May 9, with
tens of thousands of outraged
people sharing images, and
elected leaders like U.S. Sen.
Bernie Sanders denouncing the
company.
Only pilots and dispatchers
are union-represented at notori-
ously anti-union Delta, which is
the least unionized of any major
U.S. airline. But the Interna-
tional Association of Machinists
and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
has been campaigning to repre-
sent flight attendants and ramp
and cargo workers there. In re-
sponse, Delta has been holding
weekly anti-union meetings,
playing anti-union videos non-
stop in break rooms, campaign-
ing via an anti-union web site
DontRiskItDontSignIt.com, and
distributing anti-union printed
materials.
“Union dues cost around
$700 a year,” says one of the
leaflets. “A new video game
system with the latest hits
sounds like fun. Put your money
towards that instead of paying
dues to the union.”
“What does $700 mean to
you?” says another. “Nothing’s
more enjoyable than a night out
watching football with your
buddies. All those union dues
you pay every year could buy a
few rounds.”