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
