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CWA and Hi-Tech Affiliate Take on $300 Billion Microsoft
Great place to work. You can wear jeans to the office, grab a free soda any time, play basketball or volleyball on breaks. Most of the computer jocks who work on Microsoft's 260-acre Redland, Wash. campus are real go-getters, and many work 50 or 60 hours a week. There's only one catch.
If you wear a blue I.D. badge, you get a great salary, great benefits, valuable stock options and career longevity. Wear an orange badge, you get overtime at the company's discretion, no company benefits, no stock options. And, if you've worked there a year, when you finish your project, you get a minimum of 30 days off - without pay.
Rising to President Bahr's challenge to organize hi-tech workers, CWA has partnered with a growing association in the Puget Sound region that is attracting interest from hundreds of computer hardware and software specialists and technical writers. More than 10,000 contractors or agency employees work for Microsoft, Boeing and other large multinational corporations headquartered in and around Seattle.
They're the orange badges. Unlike the blue badges, they are not career employees. They are employed by one of more than 50 temporary agencies that do not provide long-term job security, affordable health insurance or sick and vacation leave.
They're called "A-dashes" on the Microsoft campus, because their e-mail addresses start with "A -" for "Agency." They can't play on company sports teams or attend the company picnic. And they're prohibited from talking about the possibility of permanent employment.
Several months ago, three such "A-dashes," fed up with the lack of dignity on campus, formed the Washington Alliance of Technical Workers, or WashTech. Their executive board in July voted to affiliate with CWA. WashTech will be chartered as The Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 83.
As the Microsoft antitrust trial unfolded in Washington, D.C., Larry Cohen, CWA executive vice president and director of organization, pointed out that the company is a $300 billion behemoth, worth three times the value of AT&T, and that Chairman Bill Gates' personal net worth is about $60 billion.
"Computers and the Internet, closely entwined with telecommunications, represent a tremendous growth area for our union," Cohen continued. "We have an obligation to do all we can to prevent exploitation of these workers."
Hi-Tech Organizing
Cohen, who spent two days on the Microsoft campus, has assigned CWA organizer Andrea de Majewski to work alongside WashTech co-founders Marcus Courtney and Mike Blain, combining traditional CWA organizing methods with their sophisticated use of e-mail and the Internet.
Blain, a former editor of technical material for Microsoft, explained how "A-dashes" get work. "You come into Microsoft and interview with a guy. He wants to hire you, so he sends you to a temporary agency. They hire you and send you back."
The humiliating process is a catalyst for organizing, explained Courtney, a former "A-dash" test engineer at Microsoft. "Workers who don't feel they're part of the company and don't feel they're part of the agency want to be part of something."
Through e-mail and personal dialogue with more than 900 technology workers who visit their World Wide Web site, they are gradually defining their organization.
They've met privately with workers on or near the Microsoft campus and held larger bi-weekly meetings for the past seven months at the King County Labor Council. They've shared office space with the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild.
Coming Together
About 200 hi-tech workers turned out for a forum Oct. 13 at the University of Washington, in Seattle, sponsored by WashTech.
Dubbed, "The New Digital Workforce: The Myths and Realities of Working in High-Tech," the forum included presentations on workers' rights by representatives of the King County Labor Council and the university's Center for Labor Studies, as well as a software temp agent and legal experts.
With a broad gulf between worker and agency views, said de Majewski, "We had some really spirited debate."
"Wall Street and corporate America has figured out how to keep unemployment down and wages low at the same time," said Blain. "Our labor is very much in demand, and we're going to exploit that as much as we can."
Their Internet link leads to face-to-face contact which, de Majewski says, is still key to building a union. De Majewski credited Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild Steward John Scott and other members of the Guild local organizing committee for working with WashTech from the outset on community outreach and phone banking. Members pay dues equal to one hour's wage per month to receive WashTech's newsletter and access to contract advice, job networking and, starting in January, computer classes.
WashTech leaders have already weighed in as lobbyists for wage and hour legislation and have begun to explore possibilities for collective bargaining and providing benefits to agency workers, said TNG-CWA Secretary-Treasurer Bernie Lunzer, who has visited with WashTech leaders at the Seattle Guild office.
WashTech on the Web
WashTech launched a World Wide Web site in late April which, because of its target audience's familiarity and access to computers, has become a prime recruiting tool. Among goals listed on the site:
Establishing a statewide voice for high-tech workers on employment policy and legislation.
Working to make sick pay, holiday pay and decent medical coverage basic workplace rights.
Educating workers about their rights to organize, negotiate contracts and share employment information.
Conducting community outreach with the press and government.
Combating the unbalanced nature of the agency/employee relationship by challenging "at-will" contracts and other worker restrictions.
The site - at www.washtech.org - is also a valuable site for news of the industry and of legal and legislative battles for workers' rights. It has already provoked letters of objection from industry attorneys for publishing a veiled threat of blacklisting by one temp agency and, in its entirety, a Microsoft survey that Blain alleges was constructed to misrepresent workers' job satisfaction for lobbying purposes.
If you wear a blue I.D. badge, you get a great salary, great benefits, valuable stock options and career longevity. Wear an orange badge, you get overtime at the company's discretion, no company benefits, no stock options. And, if you've worked there a year, when you finish your project, you get a minimum of 30 days off - without pay.
Rising to President Bahr's challenge to organize hi-tech workers, CWA has partnered with a growing association in the Puget Sound region that is attracting interest from hundreds of computer hardware and software specialists and technical writers. More than 10,000 contractors or agency employees work for Microsoft, Boeing and other large multinational corporations headquartered in and around Seattle.
They're the orange badges. Unlike the blue badges, they are not career employees. They are employed by one of more than 50 temporary agencies that do not provide long-term job security, affordable health insurance or sick and vacation leave.
They're called "A-dashes" on the Microsoft campus, because their e-mail addresses start with "A -" for "Agency." They can't play on company sports teams or attend the company picnic. And they're prohibited from talking about the possibility of permanent employment.
Several months ago, three such "A-dashes," fed up with the lack of dignity on campus, formed the Washington Alliance of Technical Workers, or WashTech. Their executive board in July voted to affiliate with CWA. WashTech will be chartered as The Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 83.
As the Microsoft antitrust trial unfolded in Washington, D.C., Larry Cohen, CWA executive vice president and director of organization, pointed out that the company is a $300 billion behemoth, worth three times the value of AT&T, and that Chairman Bill Gates' personal net worth is about $60 billion.
"Computers and the Internet, closely entwined with telecommunications, represent a tremendous growth area for our union," Cohen continued. "We have an obligation to do all we can to prevent exploitation of these workers."
Hi-Tech Organizing
Cohen, who spent two days on the Microsoft campus, has assigned CWA organizer Andrea de Majewski to work alongside WashTech co-founders Marcus Courtney and Mike Blain, combining traditional CWA organizing methods with their sophisticated use of e-mail and the Internet.
Blain, a former editor of technical material for Microsoft, explained how "A-dashes" get work. "You come into Microsoft and interview with a guy. He wants to hire you, so he sends you to a temporary agency. They hire you and send you back."
The humiliating process is a catalyst for organizing, explained Courtney, a former "A-dash" test engineer at Microsoft. "Workers who don't feel they're part of the company and don't feel they're part of the agency want to be part of something."
Through e-mail and personal dialogue with more than 900 technology workers who visit their World Wide Web site, they are gradually defining their organization.
They've met privately with workers on or near the Microsoft campus and held larger bi-weekly meetings for the past seven months at the King County Labor Council. They've shared office space with the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild.
Coming Together
About 200 hi-tech workers turned out for a forum Oct. 13 at the University of Washington, in Seattle, sponsored by WashTech.
Dubbed, "The New Digital Workforce: The Myths and Realities of Working in High-Tech," the forum included presentations on workers' rights by representatives of the King County Labor Council and the university's Center for Labor Studies, as well as a software temp agent and legal experts.
With a broad gulf between worker and agency views, said de Majewski, "We had some really spirited debate."
"Wall Street and corporate America has figured out how to keep unemployment down and wages low at the same time," said Blain. "Our labor is very much in demand, and we're going to exploit that as much as we can."
Their Internet link leads to face-to-face contact which, de Majewski says, is still key to building a union. De Majewski credited Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild Steward John Scott and other members of the Guild local organizing committee for working with WashTech from the outset on community outreach and phone banking. Members pay dues equal to one hour's wage per month to receive WashTech's newsletter and access to contract advice, job networking and, starting in January, computer classes.
WashTech leaders have already weighed in as lobbyists for wage and hour legislation and have begun to explore possibilities for collective bargaining and providing benefits to agency workers, said TNG-CWA Secretary-Treasurer Bernie Lunzer, who has visited with WashTech leaders at the Seattle Guild office.
WashTech on the Web
WashTech launched a World Wide Web site in late April which, because of its target audience's familiarity and access to computers, has become a prime recruiting tool. Among goals listed on the site:
The site - at www.washtech.org - is also a valuable site for news of the industry and of legal and legislative battles for workers' rights. It has already provoked letters of objection from industry attorneys for publishing a veiled threat of blacklisting by one temp agency and, in its entirety, a Microsoft survey that Blain alleges was constructed to misrepresent workers' job satisfaction for lobbying purposes.