Through e-mail messages and hushed conversations between office cubicles, a new labor movement is being born.
But instead of the traditional struggle between workers and management, this organizing effort is taking place in the amorphous world of high-tech temporary workers, where assignments can last years and workers often have no idea who to call boss.
The Washington Alliance of Technical Workers, or WashTech, is the brainchild of three Microsoft temps.
Their goal is to organize the thousands of high-tech workers who are funneled through temporary agencies in the Puget Sound region.
“This idea has been kicked around the industry for years,” said Marcus Courtney, a temporary test engineer at Microsoft who makes $18.42 an hour.
“When we explored the potential of an organization like this, we heard people saying, `I’m not part of a company, and I’m not part of an agency, but I want to be part of something.’ “
Whether or not WashTech attracts widespread support, labor experts say the time is right for high-tech workers to organize.
“It’s a very critical moment, but it doesn’t mean that if they fail, that will be the end of it. There’s a lot of dissatisfaction out there. That’s real. Whatever happens, it will be a long uphill battle,” said Margaret Levi, who chairs the Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington.
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WashTech is in the midst of creating a Web site (www.washtech.org), which will include information about a class-action lawsuit alleging Microsoft should have offered a discount stock-purchasing plan to certain longtime temps.
The Web site also will contain information about pending legislation that affects temps, such as the proposed Technical Workers Fairness Act.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., would repeal the IRS rule that prohibits independent contractors from working as de facto staff employees.
The primary goals of WashTech include the establishment of a statewide voice for high-tech workers; making sick pay, holiday pay and medical coverage part of employment contracts; and challenging restrictions that prevent temps from changing agencies.
Microsoft doesn’t disclose precise employment figures, but estimates place the number of temps working on the Redmond campus between 3,000 and 5,000, as much as 30 percent of its Puget Sound work force.
Boeing currently has about 3,000 such temps; the rest are scattered throughout the high-tech industry.
While Microsoft officials produce national polls to show that most temps are happy to trade stock options and other benefits for the flexibility and often higher wages provided by agencies, temps have grumbled about their lack of status for years.
On the Microsoft campus, for example, temps are informally known as “A-dashes,” from the agency preface of their e-mail addresses.
A-dashes are prohibited from playing on company sports teams, attending the annual picnic and discussing future possibilities of permanent employment.
But the elimination of overtime pay for certain temps galvanized Courtney and others to organize.
The state Department of Labor and Industries adopted a rule change on Feb. 1 that gave employers the right to eliminate time-and-a-half overtime pay for high-tech workers making more than $27.63 an hour.
L&I reopened the public-comment period on the rule change after hundreds of temps complained that they hadn’t learned of the proposed change until after a hearing had been held and the public-comment period had been closed.
Despite receiving more than 750 e-mail messages opposing the change, the agency approved the new rule.
WashTech co-founder Mike Blain, who edits technical material at Microsoft for $30 an hour, isn’t sure whether the rule change would affect him.
But the process reinforced the notion that temps like him needed a political organization to represent their interests, he said.
“The L&I decision is a symptom of a larger problem. The industry can ask for something else six months from now and they’ll probably get it because there is no countervailing voice, no workers’ representation.”
For the temporary agencies, WashTech presents an awkward problem. As the employer of record, agencies such as Volt and S&T Onsite hire temps and negotiate wages.
But most of the criticisms are aimed at policies set by the agencies’ clients such as Microsoft. The situation could be even stickier if WashTech evolved into full-fledged union.
“We’re following this closely. We want to do everything we can to support employees and do everything we can to support our clients,” said Eric Sonett, manager of special projects at S&T Onsite.
Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said he had not heard of WashTech, and could not comment on the company’s reaction.
However, he noted that Microsoft continues to approve time-and-a-half overtime pay for agency temps.
So far, WashTech has held six public meetings at the King County Labor Council headquarters in Belltown. Organizers from the labor council continue to offer recruitment advice.
“In the software industry, there is a breakdown between the traditional employer-employee relationship,” said Courtney.
“There is no one speaking on our behalf, whether they’re at Microsoft or Boeing. We need a voice.”