These workers are contracted by Cognizant, one of the many subcontractors which works with Google and its parent company Alphabet. … However, Google has refused to bargain with them, because it says it is not legally considered to be their employer. The workers, the union, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) contest this point.

Unfortunately the workers don’t really have a case against Google here. Don’t get me wrong - “vendor” companies are parasites and often serve only to avoid paying full benefits to those whom companies would otherwise need to hire as full-time employees. But there’s decades of established law that says they are not, in fact, employed by the contractor. Without changing the law, vendor employees won’t be considered transitively employed by the contractor by any court.