Bulletins

US labor board finds Google violated labor laws, spied on fired workers

In a complaint filed Wednesday, the National Labor Relations Board said Google illegally surveilled and fired two employees, Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers, as part of its effort to crack down on labor organizing.

After speaking critically about Google at a worker rally last year, Berland was fired along with several colleagues. Google said Berland had violated company policies when he accessed the open calendars of Google executives who he believed to be meeting with anti-organizing consultants. Spiers was also fired last year after she built a pop-up notification for Google employees who visited the website of an anti-union organization that Google was reportedly working with.

In a statement on Twitter, Berland called the board's complaint "vindicating." Spiers also applauded the decision, tweeting, "Workers must unite to tackle the power of the tech giants, it's the only way to hold them accountable."

Issie Lapowsky

Issie Lapowsky ( @issielapowsky) is Protocol's chief correspondent, covering the intersection of technology, politics, and national affairs. She also oversees Protocol's fellowship program. Previously, she was a senior writer at Wired, where she covered the 2016 election and the Facebook beat in its aftermath. Prior to that, Issie worked as a staff writer for Inc. magazine, writing about small business and entrepreneurship. She has also worked as an on-air contributor for CBS News and taught a graduate-level course at New York University's Center for Publishing on how tech giants have affected publishing.

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