[908B64B197]

It's basically "Big Tech Bashing" at this point.

She wasn't working for Google, she was working for a contractor. Go to a different datacenter and it will be staffed by a different (local) contractor. Same thing for most of the building's maintenance staff. What makes it news-worthy is that the owner of that particular server-rack was a high-profile company. Had the same thing happened at a datacenter owned by a bank, nobody would have reported on it.

[chris11]

Google was involved in her employment. The Alphabet Worker's Union filed a complaint against both Google and Modis. There's no reason to assume that only one company was involved, who was responsible can be decided by the NLRB.

[joshuamorton]

You understand that most Google DCs are owned and operated by google, and serve only google, right?

So like even at best this is "Google contracted some dc operations to a company that violated labor relations law."

The more newsworthy part is that she was able to get recourse.

[GauntletWizard]

It wasn't long ago that Google directly employed most of their datacenter techs. I know a couple guys who worked their way up from server monkey to SRE. It's sad to hear that that pathway seems closed off.

[pb7]

If you get a guy to come replace your roof, it's not really your problem that his employer didn't give him a water bottle, now is it?

[ALittleLight]

Sure, but if I own a house construction company and hire a contractor to do the roofs because I want to keep roof costs down at all costs I am responsible for the low salaries and poor conditions of my roof contractors.

[buryat]

being a good client I would still offer them water/soft drink regardless.

[pmiller2]

Yeah, it kinda is, unless you're a total shitbag with no empathy.

[sjg007]

If the contractor doesn't pay the subcontractor, you as the homeowner are liable.