---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 15:52:41 -0700
From: Michael Givel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: High Tech Temps Aren't Mourning, They are Organizing
Labor Group Wants to Organize Tech Temp Workers
It seeks benefits, security for Microsoft `permatemps'
Ilana DeBare, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, July 16, 1999
Mark Turner is a lifelong Republican who used to have nothing but
contempt for labor unions, including the teachers union and machinists
union that counted his parents as members.
``I have browbeat my parents my whole life because I thought unions
were a thing of the past,'' he said.
Now Turner, 39, is the most unlikely of union supporters. The
$31-per-hour computer programmer signed a petition last month asking
Microsoft Corp. to bargain collectively with his 20-person work group.
``Now I'm unable to go to my parents' house,'' Turner joked.
Turner and his colleagues at Microsoft -- long-term temporary workers
who have become known as ``permatemps'' -- are on the cutting edge of a
new effort by organized labor to penetrate the world of high tech.
Seattle tech workers have formed a group called WashTech that has
affiliated with the Communication Workers of America and is trying to
organize skilled computer professionals like Turner.
They clearly have got an uphill battle. High-tech employees not only
are independent minded, but they also often are well paid. Traditional
union elections and contracts can't be applied easily to temporary
employees, who make up a growing share of the tech workforce. And the
entrepreneurial culture of the tech industry means that many workers
see stock options rather than union cards as the ticket to financial
security.
But there are some growing murmurs of discontent within the ranks of
tech workers that could create opportunities for unions.
Programmers and engineers in their 40s and 50s commonly voice
complaints about age discrimination. And as companies rely increasingly
on contractors and temporary workers, some high-tech temps are starting
to rebel against what they see as second-class status.
``You read about everyone being a millionaire and ready to cash in
big,'' said Marcus Courtney, a former temp at Microsoft who helped
found WashTech.
``But my own experience after four years in the industry was that I had
no health benefits, no retirement plan, no job security. Every day, I
worried about whether it would be my last day on the job.'' WashTech so
far is focusing on contingent workers -- people employed on a temporary
or contract basis.
The number of such workers has grown dramatically both inside and
outside the computer industry.
The portion of the U.S. workforce employed by temporary agencies rose
from 0.5 percent in 1982 to 2.2 percent in 1997, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Together with independent contractors and
employees of contracting firms, temps now account for one of every 10
workers -- more than 13 million people.
And nowhere has this growth gotten more attention than at Microsoft,
which for several years has been fighting a class-action lawsuit by
temps seeking access to the same benefits as regular employees.
Microsoft counts 5,500 to 6,500 temporary employees in its workforce of
30,000, or about 1 of every 5 staffers on its Redmond campus.
Many have long-term assignments: 63 percent of the Microsoft temps
surveyed by WashTech have been at the company for more than a year.
Some Microsoft work groups are made up entirely of orange-badged temps,
with only the team's manager wearing the blue badge that marks
permanent employees.
Microsoft says it uses temps for reasons similar to other high-tech
firms -- to keep up with rapid product cycles and dramatic swings in
customer demands.
For instance, Microsoft might need hundreds of tech-support people when
it unveils a new version of Windows, but that need quickly would die
down as customers get used to the new product.
And many of Microsoft's longtime temps are, in fact, satisfied with
their status. They note that temps typically receive a higher hourly
pay rate than permanent employees.
Mark Dixon, 46, has worked as a multimedia producer at Microsoft on
three different temporary assignments for a total of 5 1/2 years.
``I like the flexibility and extra pay of being a contractor, and the
change of people and products,'' he said.
But other longtime Microsoft temps feel exploited. They say they're
being unfairly deprived of benefits ranging from discounts on Microsoft
software to sick leave, lucrative stock options and fully paid health
care.
In 1991, some disgruntled Microsoft contractors filed a class-action
lawsuit seeking benefits that continues wending its way through the
courts.
And in early 1998, a new generation of frustrated temps decided to form
WashTech and affiliate with the CWA.
They face some daunting organizational challenges.
The traditional kind of union election and bargaining process doesn't
work well for temps. One problem is that contested union elections can
take years to resolve -- by which time temps may have moved on to
entirely new assignments.
Another problem is that the National Labor Relations Board has said you
can't negotiate a contract for a group of temps unless all the staffing
agencies that employ them have agreed to take part in the bargaining.
``You might have to bargain with five different agencies, and if one
refused to give its consent, none of the other agencies would be
required to bargain,'' Courtney said.
So instead of a traditional focus on collective bargaining, WashTech is
instead trying what it calls ``collective action'' -- lobbying, letter
writing, public pressure and employee- protest actions.
So far, WashTech has a dues-paying membership of 175 and an e- mail
mailing list of about 1,200 high-tech employees.
It's made a name for itself promoting the rights of high-tech temps in
Washington's state Legislature and in the news media. But its biggest
actual organizing battle so far has involved a relatively small group
of 20 temporary programmers that included Turner.
Turner's unit is made up of financial professionals -- CPAs and
business school graduates -- who are writing code for a new financial
software program.
They decided to organize last month after Microsoft announced that it
was requiring all of its temporary staffing firms to offer at least a
minimal level of benefits to their workers -- things like 13 paid
holidays or vacation days each year, health insurance with premiums
that are 50 percent paid by the agency, and a retirement plan with an
employer contribution.
Members of the financial software group said they were told that they
were ineligible for the improved benefits because of the way their jobs
were classified by Microsoft.
In fact, parts of their benefit package were far below the new standard
put out by Microsoft. For instance, their retirement plan didn't have
any employer contribution. Their health plan capped the amount of
benefits they could receive at $7,000 per year.
``If you broke a leg, you were done. And if you got cancer or a heart
attack -- forget it,'' said Nancy Martin, 38, a CPA who has worked as a
temporary programmer at Microsoft since November.
Eighteen out of the 20 financial software temps signed a petition
asking Microsoft to negotiate with them as a group over their wages and
benefits.
Nearly all of them also signed up as dues-paying members of WashTech.
Microsoft refused to negotiate, saying it wasn't the programmers'
employer.
``Issues of collective bargaining are issues between employees and
their employer,'' said Microsoft spokesman Dan Leach. ``In this case,
the employers are the staffing companies.'' The four staffing agencies
that employed the group also refused to bargain.
But then the agencies told the workers that they would in fact upgrade
the group's benefits to the Microsoft standard.
Temp agency officials said they had planned the benefit improvements
long before the petition was drafted.
``We were treating them fairly and working on some of these matters
long before (the petition),'' said Norma Kraus, vice president of Volt
Services Group, which employs about 14 of the 20 financial software
people.
But employees felt they had won an unofficial victory. ``Basically,
they are not recognizing us as a bargaining unit, but we are winning
our points,'' said Martin.
The group still has several unmet demands. For instance, they want an
end to broad pay disparities within their group that have led to people
earning anywhere from $18 to $35 per hour for similar work.
They also want the freedom to switch to a different temporary agency
while staying in their current assignments -- something prohibited in
their contracts.
They're optimistic about their prospects for success.
``Microsoft managers sooner or later will get real tired of hearing
about us in the press,'' Turner predicted. ``They'll contact Volt and
say, `Let my people go.' '' On a broader level, WashTech hopes to
parlay dozens of small skirmishes like this one into better conditions
for high-tech temps as a whole.
``This was a significant step, since it was the first time that
high-tech workers tried to gain collective bargaining rights at their
job site,'' Courtney said.
Will WashTech succeed? Other labor unions and high-tech companies are
watching closely to find out.
``I'm skeptical because of how independent most contractors are,'' said
Jerry Erickson, publisher of Contract Employment Weekly magazine.
``Most contractors have been pretty happy with what they're doing.
``On the other hand, so many people have entered the contracting
industry recently who don't really want to be there,'' Erickson
continued. ``We've seen an influx of people who aren't doing it because
they want to, but because they've been downsized or can't find a
permanent opportunity.''
TECH TEMP UNIONS SPREAD TO SILICON VALLEY
Seattle isn't the only area where labor unions are trying to organize
high-tech temporary workers.
Silicon Valley unions are trying to improve the lot of high- tech temps
in a novel way: They've set up a labor-run temporary staffing firm.
The South Bay Labor Council of the AFL-CIO launched a nonprofit
staffing firm last winter called Solutions at Work that aims to provide
temporary clerical workers to small businesses.
Solutions at Work so far has placed about 75 workers at 60 firms.
The staffing firm is part of the Labor Council's efforts to respond to
the rise of contingent workers -- temporary, contract or part-time
workers who often have little job security and few benefits.
``In our judgment, the expansion of temporary employment is not a
passing phase, but a long- term part of the new economy,'' said Bob
Brownstein, policy director of Working Partnerships USA, a research
group affiliated with the South Bay Labor Council that is overseeing
the temp initiative.
``It doesn't do any good to try and make it go away. So we need to be
as creative as possible in developing policies that will . . . meet the
needs of working families.'' The Labor Council -- which hopes
eventually to expand Solutions at Work to include light-industrial and
technical workers -- hopes the firm will be a model for how to treat
temporary employees. No worker is paid less than $10 an hour; workers
will have access to health insurance, sick leave and holidays; and they
will be given advance notice if assignments are shortened or changed.
At the same time, the council is launching an advocacy group that will
pressure large Silicon Valley employers to impose an industrywide
``code of conduct'' on the temp agencies they use.
San Jose business leaders said the Labor Council's efforts hadn't yet
produced any noticeable changes in the area's staffing industry. One
major local temp firm hadn't even heard of the Labor Council's
initiative.
``From an employer's perspective, this is just another agency they can
go to for temporary help,'' said Jim Tucker, spokesman for the San Jose
Chamber of Commerce.
But Tucker added that it still is too early to see how the effort will
pan out.
``It's a bit unusual for a union- based organization to get into the
staffing business,'' Tucker said. ``But we've discovered that Working
Partnerships is an innovative kind of group. They sometimes think out
of the box. We'll have to see how it works out.''
�1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page B1
--
For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
