@ltapilot Thank you. Fascinating. This applies to me recently. People at my company have been forming a union. I joined. Within 10 days after that, I was fired for “illicit meetings.” The only meetings I went to that I did not attend with my boss were for the union meetings which I attended on my own time and on my own computer, with my own camera. I sensed something was going to be weird about the meeting HR requested, and a thousand people who had tried to form the union were also fired similarly. So I recorded the Zoom call on my phone without letting the others know.
They completely lied to me. They told me I was being laid off. They told me I would get severance. They told me I would be able to get unemployment. But then what they reported to the state of California was that I had actually been fired.
This evil, evil, evil company is Activision Blizzard, the world’s largest producer of video games. Google them and you can find countless articles in Forbes or in the New York Times and Bloomberg about just how evil they truly are, particularly the CEO.
Now, I live in Utah which is one of the one-party recording states. But the company is based in California which is an all-party recording state. According to this article, I did the right thing because I followed the recording rules for the state in which I live.
My understanding, based on what I was taught in film school regarding documentary filmmaking, is that you can record people in public without their permission except for when you’re going to submit the video as evidence in court.
Because my company listed me as fired, I haven’t been able to get unemployment! I’m going to fight it, but the only way I can do so is by telling California unemployment that I have a video of the meeting in which I was “laid off,” showing four people refusing to give me any explanation about what “illicit meetings” to which they were referring. They gave me no opportunity to ask questions. They all went mute when I asked a question. I was never even written up prior to this. I had a 100% score on my recent annual evaluation and also my bonus evaluation. But there I was, getting fired at Christmas for joining a union in an industry that abuses their employees worse than any other industry except maybe Amazon.
I definitely miss the money but I do not miss having to work 100 or more hours per week, mandatory. For a while I got paid double time for any hour over 40, but it didn’t take long for them to quit paying overtime. They owe me about $75,000 in overtime pay.
And no, I don’t have enough money nor energy nor time nor desire to sue them.
Anyway, I’m glad this tangent came up; thank you.
