Labor is winning in Silicon Valley. It is a California uprising of low wage workers in the midst of some of the highest paid workers who make $112,610 annually. In contrast, the support workers were making minimum wage to the highest of $13 to $14 an hour.
When these workers asked for a union to better their lives, companies like Apple, with a worth of $1 trillion, Google, valued at $383 billion, Facebook, valued at $250 billion, brought in anti-union law firm Jackson Lewis, a notorious union busting firm that uses every trick in the anti-union playbook to scare and intimidate the wage slaves.
They pull workers aside and hold long captive meetings preaching the pitfalls of unions. These companies use the Walmart playbook by calling the wage slaves “associates” and tell the workers they are better off directly talking with Walmart management than using a union. Of course, they don’t tell the worker that is the company disagrees that the company fire them on the spot.
The first stirring began in 2014 when the Rev. Jesse Jackson started a campaign focusing on racial and class disparities in the Valley Security Guards to fight for better working conditions for security guards who worked for Valley company, and Universal Protection Services an Security Industry Specialists. These employees make $10 to $12 an hour with no benefits. Service Employees International Union is working with these employees.
The Teamsters have had four union victories in 2015: the warehouse workers at Google Express, waste disposal workers at Genentech, and workers at two transportation companies.
Also, the infamous “brogrammers” of Silicon Valley may want to consider a union to protect their hobs and pay from the impact of the H-1B visas, which will bring underpaid workers to take their jobs, and drive down wages that is called the Walmart wage pollution of wages.
This region of Silicon Valley is what some are saying is a test case for how profits are shared in the 21st century, and will these industries distribute the wealth to the many who make the industry work? Or will it continue to concentrate its profits in the hands of a few?
The workers can take a chance on the charity of the industry or go with the unions to protect them. It is the workers choice and at this point, I think given our current greedy attitude by corporations that the toilers should go union.
Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
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