I recently had the pleasure of hearing Angela Cornell give a Rose Cafe concerning the Google sexual harassment walkout and the issues it raises. In particular, I was fascinated by the revelation that it is possible (common, even!) for companies to require employees to forgo the typical (public) legal process for resolving complaints in favor of in-house (private) arbitration. I am not familiar with how such arbitration works, so I assume (and can only hope – yet still doubt) that it is as fair to the plaintiff as possible, possibly even more generous than the typical legal route, yet even under such an unlikely assumption it is clear there are significant issues with such an arrangement. One issue Professor Cornell raised is that this prevents numbers of plaintiffs from grouping their claims together in a class action suit, which (if nothing else) would enable the fielding of more evidence from different sources to support their claims, as well as ensure the company cannot claim things to be “isolated incidents.” In short, while I doubt much can be done on a national scale, I applaud the Google employees for making a stand and affecting significant change to this problematic policy.

Chatting with Angela Cornell, at Prof. Avery’s apartment, opened my eyes to a side of the work place that I had not heard about. Anti-sexual Harassment movement’s have been on the rise since the #MeToo movement. I had not realized this movement was effecting workplaces too. Cornell told us about the recent Google Walkout. Google employees all over the world walked-out of their offices to protest the recent actions of Google. Google has recently released a high level employee as a result of workplace misconduct. However, the employee was released with a very nice severance package.

As most of us are going to enter the workplace soon, Cornell reminded us to read out legal agreements with our employers before signing them!

I went to the Angela Cornell talk this week about the Google Walkout and found it very enriching. We talked about how the last few years have seen an uptick in job action whether that be teacher activity, NFL protests, the Google Walkout we focused on, or even the MeToo era at large. She described the GoogleWalkout wherein employees chose to organize and leave the job for some hours )in some offices, for some days) in order to protest not just the sexual misconduct of top executive Andy Rubin, but largely to protest the “punishment” he received: a severance package of over $90 million.

Though many of the elements of the event at Google highlighted by Ms. Cornell were interesting, I believe the point that stood out to me the most was that of the power of collective action. We discussed how there was change after the walkout as workers were able to assert their desire for the riddance of mandatory arbitration and were successful at having this policy changed. We talked about the process of such organizing, how much of it took place through social media, showing that workers can possess power by simply picking up their phones to call for change. We lastly discussed how mutual aid and protection is actually provided in the NLRA, meaning that workers can take measures like these if trying to create a better workplace. This one was a large eye-opener for me because it truly drove home just how powerful workers can be in the process of creating and changing employment conditions. Overall, I walked away very enlightened about just how much impact and power labor can possess in workplace struggles, and it can be done through knowledge of the rights that they, or we, all have. When we wield those rights, we can possess more power than we think.

At this week’s Rose Café, we met with Professor Angela Cornell, a suitably named law professor who teaches at Cornell, and we discussed the evolution of societal responses to sexual harassment. More specifically, we focused on the walkouts from Google in response to an accumulating series of issues. For example, a high-level employee with credible accusations of sexual harassment against him had received a $90 million severance package, and the company forced sexual harassment complaints to be internally arbitrated instead of brought to a court.

This was really informative because it taught me the power of collective action. A massive group of Google employees across multiple countries, with only a small amount of coordination, was able to plan an effective protest that made a significant difference not just in Google, but all throughout the private sector. In response to the walkouts, Google officially ended its policy of mandatory arbitration for all complaints,  and many other corporations ended their mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment complaints. This shows me that, by working with other like-minded individuals towards a common goal, we can become a powerful and influential group. Together, we can make a difference in the world, and leave it better than how we found it.

The talk with Angela Cornell about the google strike today was an intriguing journey into the world of the abused, neglected and contractually assaulted. Being from the ILR school, I knew a lot of the background to Cornell’s lecture and what my professors likely would have argued concerning her thoughts. While I went into the talk thinking that the entire theme would be about an intangible evil that happened only to others, I was soundly mistaken. One of the topics of thought Angela Cornell posed to us was that when we get jobs and sign contracts, we should make sure we do not have any contractually binding elements in them that limit our rights in the unfortunate event legal action is necessary. 

When hearing this, I immediately began thinking of my future. I want to go into law, but I also have a few other possible options, including some other office jobs and think tanks. It is always important for workers to protect themselves from harassment, even men, who are also susceptible to this kind of unwanted advances under rare circumstances. Therefore, I wanted to share this advice with other future employees in the labor market. As a child, I remember hearing stories of workplace misconduct that my parents either experienced in their jobs or that they saw other colleagues go through. While I had forgotten most stories, considering I heard them a decade ago, I now remember a lot, from the simple suggestive comment to the explicit exchange of sexual favors for promotions. Now, many may ask, if this is a prevalent mindset and an exposed concept to prospective employees at a company, why don’t they take a stand when initially signing their contracts. Angela Cornell expressed the reason for this quite well in the fact that new workers initially believe that this type of discrimination won’t befall them, as the company selected them out of many other applicants because the managers liked and valued them. While this may very well be the case, I urge every new worker to review their contracts and protect themselves from the corporate paperwork that limits their rights in our free world.