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Mozilla lays off 70

(techcrunch.com)
929 points ameshkov | 7 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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dman ◴[] No.22058629[source]
Brendan Eich has a helpful chart of Compensation of Highest paid executive at Mozilla vs Firefox market share over time.

https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1217512049716035584/p...

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paul7986 ◴[] No.22059384[source]
Seems odd in his tweet he noted he was unable to get funding in the valley for Brave. The guy created JavaScript and was a creator of Firefox. Don't get it ..as JS alone has contributed like how much to world economies, as well to almost every HN reader's wallet/bank.
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core-questions[dead post] ◴[] No.22059460[source]
He got cancelled for not supporting gay marriage. Nothing he has actually personally done or will do matters in this new moral calculus.
cdmckay ◴[] No.22059545[source]
He didn’t not support gay marriage, he actively gave money to oppose it. That’s a little different.
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core-questions ◴[] No.22060004[source]
It doesn't matter - it's legal, protected political speech in donation form. There's nothing wrong with having differing opinions about things; you can disagree as much as you like and donate as much as you want to counter it.
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bduerst ◴[] No.22060114[source]
Appeal to legality isn't proof of moral superiority. Racial segregation was also legal via Jim Crow laws, and people still hold the political opinion it should still be despite society changing and moving forward.

It is also not censorship nor is it illegal to terminate employment with someone based on their political actions.

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manfredo ◴[] No.22060703[source]
> It is also not censorship nor is it illegal to terminate employment with someone based on their political actions.

It is in California: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/...

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bduerst ◴[] No.22060873[source]
Only in enacting company-wide policies to coerce political participation. Terminating employment for political actions in an at-will employment state like California is still legal.

From your article:

>On the contrary, political beliefs or views are not a specifically protected category under California's discrimination laws. Nothing in either of the two labor code provisions above directly addresses discrimination or retaliation on the basis of expressed political views. Nor does the First Amendment serve to provide any further guidance. With limited exceptions, the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of "freedom of speech" applies only to government action and not private employers/employees. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 prohibits political affiliation discrimination against federal employees only.

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1. belorn ◴[] No.22062717{7}[source]
Lawyers in California disagree: https://www.worklawyers.com/illegal-firings-california/
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2. bduerst ◴[] No.22069033[source]
That's a lawyer's marketing blog selling his services to sue for wrongful termination. The labor code § 1101 they cite is the same thing: it applies only to employers using threatening to terminate in order to coerce political activity, not actually terminating someone for political actions.

This is an important distinction. It is illegal for an employer to threaten all employees with termination if they do not vote on X, for example. It is not illegal for an employer to terminate an employee for taking a specific political action.

Mozilla did not threaten to terminate in order to coerce action, they terminated for actions already taken place, making it legal.

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3. manfredo ◴[] No.22069658[source]
> it applies only to employers using threatening to terminate in order to coerce political activity, not actually terminating someone for political actions.

So your idea is that it's not okay to threaten to fire an employee over political actions, but it is okay to actually fire someone over political actions? No worker protections protects against both. Read it closely:

> No employer shall coerce or influence or attempt to coerce or influence his employees through _or_ by means of threat of discharge or loss of employment to adopt or follow or refrain from adopting or following any particular course or line of political action or political activity.

It prohibits both discharge and threat of discharge. The argument that Mozilla did not threaten to discharge Eich, and thus discharging Eich because of his political activity is not relevant. Both are prohibited.

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4. bduerst ◴[] No.22078568{3}[source]
I didn't make the laws - this is what they are. GP is making the appeal to legality which is wrong in this case.

The law is to prevent employers from extorting all employees into taking political action under threat of termination. Terminating a single employee for their past political actions is different from extorting all employees into action.

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5. manfredo ◴[] No.22079500{4}[source]
> The law is to prevent employers from extorting all employees into taking political action under threat of termination.

Not incorrect, but an incomplete description of these worker protections. It is also prevents employers from threatening employees into refraining from taking political action, "No employer shall coerce or influence or attempt to coerce or influence his employees through or by means of threat of discharge or loss of employment to adopt or follow or refrain from adopting or following any particular course or line of political action or political activity."

> Terminating a single employee for their past political actions is different from extorting all employees into action.

Terminating an employee for their political action makes it crystal clear to the remaining employees that they need to refrain from that political action if they want to keep their jobs - and that violates worker protections.

Again, you seem to be under the impression that these protections only exist to prevent employers from making their employees carry out a political action. That's not the case, they also prohibit influencing employees from refraining taking political action. Firing an employee from donating to a ballot initiative is a very explicit way to get employees to refrain from donating to said ballot initiative.

And yet again, I as well as other commenters have provided you with analysis from law groups that explain that Mozilla firing Eich over his political donations would have violated these worker protections.

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6. bduerst ◴[] No.22080530{5}[source]
This is becoming ad nauseum. You're missing the point about how the law applies differently to company policy and actions, but my guess is that you desperately want them to be the same hence your repeated arguments and confirmation bias. The lawyer blogs you and another commenter linked to are trying to sell services to sue employers and are not valid analyses.
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7. manfredo ◴[] No.22086486{6}[source]
> This is becoming ad nauseum. You're missing the point about how the law applies differently to company policy and actions

Where are you getting this idea that this law only applies to company "policy". Reread the protections:

> No employer shall coerce or influence or attempt to coerce or influence his employees through _or_ by means of threat of discharge or loss of employment to adopt or follow or refrain from adopting or following any particular course or line of political action or political activity.

Where does it say that this is only prohibited by policy? It says "No employer shall..." not "No employer shall implement policy to...". The law does not apply differently to company "policy" versus "actions".