"Imagine these compianies controlled who offered you cars, or siding, or which schools your kids got invited to. Its not a decision they have the right to make

"Imagine these compianies controlled who offered you cars, or siding, or which schools your kids got invited to. Its not a decision they have the right to make for their employees" And so they don't. All these companies decided was that THEY don't aggressively try to recruit employees from certain other companies. They are not "controlling" anything. Their employees are free to apply wherever they want, including other companies that were part of the informal agreement, and those companies are free to hire them if they want. I agree that recruiting employees from other companies isn't "stealing", and the argument that this agreement could artificially lower wages isn't unreasonable either. However, some people seem to be jumping to conclusions here. The agreement does NOT mean that someone cannot move from e.g. Google to Apple (etc), nor that Google would sue Apple if they did, nor that any of these companies "control" where their employees are going.