Googler says she was fired for sending pop-ups on labor rights via modified internal browser plugin; Google: she “abused privileged access” in altering the tool
and blatant retaliation against—queer labour organisers https://twitter.com/... Brianna Wu / @briannawu : It's hard to even imagine a pretext justifying this indefensible firing. This is union busting, period. I wish Ms. Spiers the best in her sure-to-be-successful civil lawsuit! https://twitter.com/... Troy / @troyceratops : I would agree it was misuse of the system. But firing is extreme. Normally, at worst, the person would be put on a PIP. I write this in my Android device. But I'm looking forward to dropping this into a fire pit one day soon. Meredith Whittaker / @mer__edith : This is BS. Googlers did the same thing for the Walkout, changing the default Linux background. There's a long tradition of Google eng taking initiative to create features and tools that help surface info and improve workflow. Kathryn was punished for organizing. Full stop. https://twitter.com/... Christina Warren / @film_girl : This is a bad look. Management should know that punishing people for this only encourages/spurs on organizing. It literally has the opposite effect. https://twitter.com/... Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro : Amid increasing employee activism, Google hired known anti-union firm IRI Consultants. Google engineer @eiais updated a Chrome browser extension to create a pop-up that cited *federal labor law* for Googlers visiting IRI's site. Google just fired her. https://www.nbcnews.com/... April Glaser / @aprilaser : This marks the fifth employee engaged in labor organizing at the company in a month that Google has fired https://www.nbcnews.com/... Erica Joy / @ericajoy : shame on you @sundarpichai. https://twitter.com/... Roger McNamee / @moonalice : Google's heavy handed actions against employees who organize may undermine trust with all employees. This is a test for management and employees, where the latter have more power than they realize. https://twitter.com/... Nilay Patel / @reckless : Google will relentlessly spam consumers about YouTube Premium but one internal notification about worker rights the company was required to post and the person responsible was fired: https://www.theverge.com/...
What makes this case distinct is the mechanism: Spiers modified an internal Chrome extension so Googlers visiting IRI Consultants' site — an anti-union firm Google had hired — saw pop-ups citing federal labor law. Google's counter-framing is that she abused privileged access, converting a labor dispute into a security policy question.
First-order effects
Spiers loses her job after two years at Google, and Google gains a public template for treating internal organizing tools as privileged-access violations rather than speech.
The firing lands on a workforce already primed by the walkout's aftermath, with prominent technologists publicly calling it union busting and predicting legal action.
Second-order effects
Reports indicate this is one of multiple firings of labor-organizing employees in a single month, pushing remaining organizers toward external channels — public statements, legal threats — instead of internal tools.
Google's engagement of IRI Consultants plus escalating terminations forces other tech employers watching this arc to pick a stance on union-avoidance consulting as activist scrutiny intensifies.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds through the 2024 firings of 28 sit-in participants, termination becomes Google's standard instrument for workplace protest, with security policy supplying the justification layer.
Privileged-access rules are emerging as a structural lever in the tech-labor fight: whoever controls the definition of 'abuse' of internal systems effectively controls what internal dissent is permitted.
The trend: Google is consolidating a post-walkout playbook that answers employee organizing with terminations framed as security violations, from demoted walkout leaders to sit-in arrests to Spiers' plugin edit.
Google has fired another worker activist, the fifth in less than a month. Of those five, three are trans women. “That is either an unbelievable coincidence or Google is targeting the most vulnerable.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Google fired another engineer on Friday who was engaged in employee organizing. Kathryn Spiers added a popup to an internal browser extension to remind her co-workers of their rights when visiting the site of the anti-union consultants Google hired https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Whoa this is an incredible story of what happened to @eiais - see her timeline for some endorsements and support from coworkers: https://twitter.com/...
This will directly impact how tech workers are able to organize moving forward and will likely impact how recent Google worker firings are adjudicated, since their organizing actions may no longer be consider protected activity https://www.nbcnews.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Employees have a clear right, enshrined in federal law, to post notices to other employees about their collective bargaining rights. This Google employee did nothing more than exercise this right. Her termination is unacceptable and the NLRB must intervene. https://twitter.com/..…
“After my experience, I encourage everyone in tech to stop giving management the benefit of the doubt, to join unions and continue to organize” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Between this and frequent demonetization of videos featuring queer keywords on YouTube, it's long past time we accepted that Google is no friend to the queer/trans community. https://twitter.com/...
Hi security friends. Do you work for google? Especially those of you who are doing well at 4+ years vested... please hold your employer accountable. This is egregious. Don't turn on your fellow coworkers. https://twitter.com/...
Kathryn is an incredibly brave woman and talented engineer, and Google should be made ashamed of their intimidation of—and blatant retaliation against—queer labour organisers https://twitter.com/...
It's hard to even imagine a pretext justifying this indefensible firing. This is union busting, period. I wish Ms. Spiers the best in her sure-to-be-successful civil lawsuit! https://twitter.com/...
I would agree it was misuse of the system. But firing is extreme. Normally, at worst, the person would be put on a PIP. I write this in my Android device. But I'm looking forward to dropping this into a fire pit one day soon.
This is BS. Googlers did the same thing for the Walkout, changing the default Linux background. There's a long tradition of Google eng taking initiative to create features and tools that help surface info and improve workflow. Kathryn was punished for organizing. Full stop. https…
This is a bad look. Management should know that punishing people for this only encourages/spurs on organizing. It literally has the opposite effect. https://twitter.com/...
Amid increasing employee activism, Google hired known anti-union firm IRI Consultants. Google engineer @eiais updated a Chrome browser extension to create a pop-up that cited *federal labor law* for Googlers visiting IRI's site. Google just fired her. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Google's heavy handed actions against employees who organize may undermine trust with all employees. This is a test for management and employees, where the latter have more power than they realize. https://twitter.com/...
Google will relentlessly spam consumers about YouTube Premium but one internal notification about worker rights the company was required to post and the person responsible was fired: https://www.theverge.com/...