Microsoft’s Unionized Contract Workers Get Aggressive

[Omaha Steve]

Software bug testers unionize to get paid leave. They want more


Photographer: Ryan Duffin for Bloomberg Businessweek


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-30/microsoft-contract-workers-are-organizing

by Josh Eidelson 4:33 PM CDT April 30, 2015

Hidden beneath the ecosystem of twentysomething programmers making six figures at big tech companies is a class of workers who don’t get paid vacation or maternity leave, discounted stock, 401(k) matches, or tuition assistance. For more than two decades, the industry has outsourced an expanding range of jobs to contractors, including coders, chip designers, customer service reps, custodial staff, security guards, and cafeteria workers. “A lot of temps are really used as a permanent tier of second-class workers,” says Erin Hatton, author of The Temp Economy, a history of U.S. contingent labor.

In September, 38 bug testers who review Microsoft apps voted to create a union, the Temporary Workers of America. They work full time in Microsoft’s offices but are employed by cloud services contractor Lionbridge. Before and after unionizing, the group’s efforts to get benefits comparable with those at Microsoft proved fruitless, says union head Philippe Boucher, who’s worked at Microsoft under Lionbridge full time for more than three years. “I think Lionbridge does not want to do anything,” he says. “The only thing that’s going to work is if Microsoft makes them do it.” Lionbridge didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In the fall, Boucher’s union began to put pressure on Microsoft, appealing to its board to make Lionbridge provide paid leave and other benefits. Union members contacted reporters at papers near Microsoft’s Redmond (Wash.) campus and Lionbridge’s Waltham (Mass.) headquarters and published a blog called Lionbridge Union and an e-book, The Other Microsoft, available at Amazon.com since Oct. 11.

That strategy’s starting to work: On March 26, Microsoft announced it would require contractors employing more than 50 workers to give those doing “substantial work” with Microsoft no fewer than 15 paid days off a year. (Between vacation and sick days, Microsoft’s entry-level employees receive at least 25 paid days off.) “Our decision was based on a number of factors,” says Microsoft spokesman Dominic Carr, “including the ongoing national discussion about the challenges facing working families, our own review of the research on the benefits of paid time off, and feedback from the employees of some of our suppliers.” Microsoft contracts with more than 2,000 companies for services including communications, legal counsel, management consulting, food service, and grounds work, along with bug testers.

FULL story at link.

[rurallib]

1. good to hear. It's a start

the whole concept of "contract" workers in this country is one horrible story that assigns people to a limbo between employment and unemployment where they get the worst of each world.