What happened at YouTube Music with union workers, Austin testimony, Google and staffing firm

Last week, Benedict was one of several dozen unionized workers on the YouTube Music Content Operations Team who found out that they were losing their jobs while testifying to Austin City Council. They were speaking, ironically, about their work—the refusal of Google and Cognizant, whom the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had determined to be their joint employers, to negotiate with their union, which the workers claimed was illegal union-busting. While Benedict was testifying, his co-worker Katie Marschener relayed the sudden news: “They just laid us all off. Our jobs are ended today, effective immediately,” Marschener said. The video of Benedict, obviously surprised, went viral. (Reached for comment, Cognizant spokesperson Jeff DeMarrais said if Benedict “needs help retrieving his things [left behind], that can be arranged very quickly.”) 

Since the workers first joined the union, Google has appealed the NLRB’s decision that they are joint employers, which obligates the company to bargain with them, with the board siding with the employees so far.

After a long push to get to the bargaining table, Benedict told Fortune that not only were his and his former co-workers’ roles suddenly eliminated, but they’ve now been outsourced to workers in India whom Benedict and his colleagues were instructed to train. Those workers were hired after the Austin worker’s first strike last year over…