Silicon Valley workers start to organize

Workers across all sectors are beginning to organize in Silicon Valley. The start-up phase is over for the most powerful companies in the tech sector, such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook, which are now some of the most valuable companies in the world.

While tech companies employ relatively few workers compared to their telecom counterparts, many of these companies maintain vast campuses in California, employing service and security workers in addition to coders and computer scientists. As these companies rake in more and more profit, workers are organizing for their fair share. According to Slate:

As Silicon Valley is increasingly bifurcated into haves and have-nots, labor rights activists are becoming more vocal about the need for these tech companies to “make the world a better place” for the tens of thousands of low-wage contract laborers that make it possible for technology companies to function.

“When you think of the perks of working in the Valley, you think of this idea of 24-hour food service and all these crazy food options that tech companies are known to offer up,” Jeffrey Buchanan told Salon. “What’s often not discussed is that the people who provide those services are amongst the lowest paid workers in the region. But they’re working for some of the biggest and most successful and profitable companies on the globe.”

Together workers are applying pressure to an industry that has fought and avoided regulation and labor rights. Silicon Valley Rising, a labor-rights group, is highlighting the challenges of security officers, food service workers, janitors, and shuttle-bus drivers, who are often employed as contractors earning as little as $20,000 per year. In addition, a group of tech workers started Tech Workers Coalition, a labor rights organization that pushes for just practices in the industry.

Link:

A labor movement is brewing within the tech industry (Slate, June 10, 2017)