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Who We Are »
Betsy Combier

Help Us to Continue to Help Others »
Email: betsy.combier@gmail.com

 
The E-Accountability Foundation announces the

'A for Accountability' Award

to those who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. They ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up. These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions. The winners of our "A" work to expose wrong-doing not for themselves, but for others - total strangers - for the "Greater Good"of the community and, by their actions, exemplify courage and self-less passion. They are parent advocates. We salute you.

Winners of the "A":

Johnnie Mae Allen
David Possner
Dee Alpert
Aaron Carr
Harris Lirtzman
Hipolito Colon
Larry Fisher
The Giraffe Project and Giraffe Heroes' Program
Jimmy Kilpatrick and George Scott
Zach Kopplin
Matthew LaClair
Wangari Maathai
Erich Martel
Steve Orel, in memoriam, Interversity, and The World of Opportunity
Marla Ruzicka, in Memoriam
Nancy Swan
Bob Witanek
Peyton Wolcott
[ More Details » ]
 
Ashley Gjovik Was Fired From Apple After Making Labor Complaints Against the Company
Ms. Gjovik says, "Speaking out feels like going up against a powerful government....In March, after the company sent an email to our management team and me that they wanted to test if toxic chemicals were present in the indoor air of our office building, I raised concerns about the safety of the building: Our office sits on a Superfund site, which since the '60s was home to labs that leaked toxic chemicals into the soil and groundwater. After I raised these concerns with the management team, my direct manager asked me not to share them with others.
          
   Ashley Gjovik   
I was fired from Apple after making several labor complaints against the company. Speaking out feels like going up against a powerful government.
Ashley Gjovik, Business Insider, September 16, 2021
LINK:https://www.businessinsider.com/ashley-gjovik-apple-fired-workplace-safety-sexism-harassment-2021-9

Before I was fired last week, I worked at Apple as a senior engineering program manager for over six years. I've loved Apple products and the Apple brand since I was a little girl. However, what I've witnessed and experienced has raised endless questions about the company's values.

In March, after the company sent an email to our management team and me that they wanted to test if toxic chemicals were present in the indoor air of our office building, I raised concerns about the safety of the building: Our office sits on a Superfund site, which since the '60s was home to labs that leaked toxic chemicals into the soil and groundwater.

After I raised these concerns with the management team, my direct manager asked me not to share them with others. When I raised this issue with the employee relations department, I also mentioned sexist comments my manager made towards me. Instead of looking into my workplace safety complaint, they launched an investigation into sexism by my manager. I told them I feared this would lead to retaliation against me.

In the weeks following, my managers reassigned my work without explanation, I was ostracized from meetings, and I saw an increase in my workload of unfavorable projects. I asked Apple to launch a second investigation, which was ongoing at the time of my termination. I was also organizing with employees regarding systemic discrimination at Apple, and I was working with my colleagues to gather evidence of possible safety hazards at the office.

I was frustrated and disappointed that a company I had admired for decades would act this way, but I quickly lowered my expectations when I was placed on administrative leave.

I filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, laying out the claims I have detailed above. I complained of Apple's disappointing response to my safety concerns and the years of sexism and bullying I faced while at the company. This included gendered feedback, disparaging comments about my mental health and gender, and lewd and sexual gestures one of my manager made towards me. I also complained about being held to different expectations than my male colleagues and the aforementioned retaliation. These investigations are ongoing.

If the more than 300 #AppleToo complaints in recent weeks are any indication, I am not alone in my experience alleging workplace bullying, discrimination, and retaliation. But the sheer size, power, and reach of Apple means that speaking out against the company feels like going up against a small country — one that exerts outsized, nearly invasive control over their citizens' (or employees') lives. That's why any attempt to hold the company responsible should match the standards of accountability to which we hold a state or government recovering from authoritarianism: If the company is to truly reckon with its systemic problems, it needs to start by compensating for its past and present misconduct and holding its perpetrators to account.

Apple operates like an authoritarian government, with its own set of rights for its employees

As I went through all this, one shocking line of questions arose. What rights do I have as an employee? Would Apple look through my personal data to try to get an upper hand or prepare for litigation? Apple has a well-known internal culture of surveillance, intimidation, and alienation. We're told we have no expectation of privacy while it tells the public that privacy is a human right. These disparities between my rights as an individual and as an employee make working at Apple feel like living in a parallel state.

This type of surveillance is so prevalent that earlier this year, while helping organize employees over discrimination, I made a joke on one of our channels that since I had said the word "union" three times in one day I was probably on an Apple "watch list." I have no reason to believe Apple has a watch list, it was a joke, but the point was I felt implicitly forbidden to critique Apple's policies or even speak openly to coworkers with concerns about employment and work conditions.

The company even employs former intelligence officials from the FBI, the National Security Agency, and secret services in the ranks of its "worldwide loyalty team," tasked with investigating leaks and other transgressions. After my own experience and reading about Apple's treatment of employees' privacy, I felt nauseous, powerless, and violated. I realized just how extensive the power differential between me and my employer was.

I believe it was this loyalty team that reached out to me last week not 10 minutes after I tweeted about Apple's suspicious search of a private apartment in 2011. A member of Apple's "Employee Relations Threat Assessment & Workplace Violence" team emailed me about some vague security concerns. While I agreed to cooperate, I asked to keep our conversations in writing, noting my ongoing National Labor Relations Board investigation.

Within hours of this request, I was fired. Apple accused me of not complying with the request. I was shocked. I felt retaliated against. I still don't know what to make of it, and I'm terribly disappointed in Apple.

If Apple acts like a government, should we hold it accountable as we would a country?

When I consider how Apple may remedy its relationship with its employees, I think about my studies at the University of Oxford this summer: I studied transitional justice, or how to rebuild societies following authoritarian dictatorships with systemic human rights violations. I wonder: If Apple is another kind of state, should we hold it accountable as we would a recovering dictatorship? Doing so would require us to recognize that employees in big tech — from retail to corporate workers — are essentially the subjects of arbitrary private governments, a situation that needs to be rectified through organizing and regulation.

In California, the Silenced No More Act, written by state Sen. Connie Leyva and Ifeoma Ozoma, a former Pinterest employee, would protect employees who speak out about workplace misconduct, even if they've signed a nondisclosure agreement. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also considering requiring companies to disclose workforce turnover, skills training, benefits, pay, and diversity, which may bring a degree of accountability to Apple's otherwise opaque workplace culture. Ozoma has also partnered with Nia Impact Capital to file a shareholder resolution condemning Apple's use of arbitration, nondisclosure, or non-disparagement agreements that often prevent employees from speaking out against harmful corporate culture.

Collective bargaining and unionization may allow workers a greater voice at the company and instill a bill of rights that preserves their basic dignity, but Apple has been unsurprisingly resistant to this type of worker organizing. Truly holding Apple accountable like a nation-state would require the company to redress wrongdoings past and present and hold its perpetrators responsible. A method for doing so can be found in the three A's in the training manual of all Apple retail employees: acknowledge, align, and assure.

Apple's executives could acknowledge the validity of employees' concerns over these systemic issues, agree they'd also be concerned if they were in our shoes, and then assure us they'll resolve the issues.

If my firing is any indication, they won't do so willingly.

A spokesperson for Apple told Insider: "We are and have always been deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace. We take all concerns seriously and we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised and, out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved, we do not discuss specific employee matters."

******************

Are you a Silicon Valley employee who has experienced workplace harassment? We want to hear from you. Reach out to Tekendra Parmar at tparmar@insider.com or on Signal: +1 347 770 4163

Apple hit by another NLRB charge for firing senior manager who complained of harassment

Kali Hays, Business Insider, Sept. 17, 2021

Apple is facing another charge from the National Labor Relations Board over its firing of a senior employee after she complained about how the company handled alleged internal issues.

Ashley Gjøvik, a senior engineering program manager at Apple for six years, first filed claims of work retaliation with the NLRB in late August, setting off an investigation by the government agency. She said she experienced sexual harassment at work and that her complaint was revealed to the alleged harasser. Gjøvik has also said Apple retaliated against her for the NLRB complaint and for earlier raising concerns about the office she and others worked in, as it sits on a Superfund site.

Her usual work was taken away and replaced with "unfavorable" assignments, she said in initial NLRB paperwork. Her supervisory responsibilities were also taken and eventually she was forced into administrative leave.

Gjøvik was fired last week by Apple, a move the company told her was because she shared "proprietary" company information, which Gjøvik denies. On Thursday, the company was hit with a new NLRB charge for "termination as retaliation," according to a filing by the agency. Apple did not respond to a request for comment. But the company has assigned two partners from the law firm McDermott Will & Emery, both focused on union and labor disputes, to handle the case.

Betsy Combier, Editor
betsy.combier@gmail.com
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