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From: xcruz@webtv.net (Robert Chavez)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 01:27:09 -0600 (MDT)
To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: "Microserfs" Seek Job Security
 
Temporary workers seek job security, benefits. Technical editors at
Microsoft form union-free group              
        
                                                                 Joe
Brockert / Associated Press
  
                                                                        Marcus
Courtney and Mike Blain, both temporary technical editors at Microsoft,
organize WashTech in Redford, Wash., to speak out for high-tech workers. 
                                                                                                                               
                                   
                     By
Kevin Galvin / Associated Press 
       SEATTLE -- Ten years ago, Mike Blain wore a hard hat
and toiled on unionized construction jobs in the Northwest. Today, he's
a technical editor at Microsoft. 
      Yet his new job isn't the prize it seems to be.  
Blain is one of thousands of longtime "temps" at Microsoft headquarters
who work alongside the computer giant's regular full-time staff but
don't share the same compensation, security or benefits.     
  "I had better benefits when I was digging ditches and pouring
concrete," Blain complained after a recent meeting of about a dozen
Microsoft workers who want to improve their situations. "I certainly
have an appreciation for what workers coming together can accomplish." 
       This new breed of high-tech worker sounds ripe for
organizing. But labor unions have been slow to reach out to them, and
they have been wary of unions. 
       "Traditional labor has a lot to learn about what is
happening in the new economy," said Marcus Courtney, who with Blain is
organizing WashTech, a group to speak out for high-tech workers in
Washington state. 
       At a time of phenomenal job growth in the United
States, labor unions have struggled to maintain their ranks. Despite
recruiting 400,000 new members last year, labor's share of the workforce
dropped to 14.1 percent, down from 14.5 percent the previous year.
       Union leaders who didn't invest in organizing over the
past 20 years are partly to blame. But there's another factor: Many of
the new jobs are in sectors like high-tech and service where labor
doesn't have a traditional base. 
       Many of these professionals are reluctant to join
unions that they associate with blue-collar workers and a
confrontational approach to management. 
       Jack Golodner, director of the AFL-CIO professional
employees department, dismisses suggestions that professionals can't be
organized, noting the Communication Workers of America and the American
Federation of Teachers had success targeting white-collar workers in 
1997. 
       "With new occupations and new industries, you've got to
wait until the pixie dust wears off and then you can organize," Golodner
said. "I think that with the Silicon Valley crowd, the pixie dust is
beginning to wear off." 
       Still, it may take a different approach to reach them.
Many high-tech firms tend to keep lean workforces, contracting out for
specific projects that can run for years. That makes it difficult for a
union to define a bargaining unit under labor law.        In
California's Silicon Valley, local labor leaders believe the solution
lies in labor's past. They are setting up a clearinghouse for high-tech
workers that will provide job training, certification and placement, and
may one day administer portable benefits. 
       Microsoft uses thousands of temporary workers like
Courtney and Blain. Although they forgo stock options and other
benefits, some enjoy the flexibility of their status and may earn more
than regular staff, said Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan.     
  "Microsoft employees are treated fairly, and so are the workers who
come from temp agencies," Cullinan said. There are no unionized workers
there.