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Thursday evening, the Austin, Texas City Council was set to consider and pass a resolution calling on Google to bargain with a union of YouTube Music workers who are based in the city. While one of the workers was speaking to thank the council, Google laid all of the workers off: “To be supported by the city of Austin and also our allies in the labor community gives us the motivation to keep this fight going,” Jack Benedict, a member of the Alphabet Workers Union was saying to the council.
One of his colleagues, Katie Marner, walked up to the pulpit: “Not to interrupt, but they just laid us all off,” she says. “They just laid us all off. Our jobs are ended today. Effective immediately.” A bell rings. “I’m sorry, your time has expired, but we’ll follow up on this,” Austin mayor Kirk Preston Watson says.
The topic of the meeting changed. The resolution called on Google to “to engage in negotiations with the union representing the YouTube Music Content Operations Team,” and was a “commitment to supporting workers’ rights.” City council postponed the resolution and did not pass it.
“While I’m disappointed to learn about the postponement, I just wanna express my solidarity with the YouTube workers,” councilwoman Vanessa Fuentes said. “You have my support and shame on Google for what they did this morning laying off the team.”