Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 16:59:16 -0400
Subject: Re: AUT: How  To Wage Struggle in  Silicon Valley/Technical Workplaces
From: Enda Brophy <2eob-AT-qlink.queensu.ca>


unionizing could be a one step towards facilitating insubordination and 
cutting into your company's bottom line: this by no means guarantees 
militancy as we all know (on your part or theirs), but it might be 
useful for you, at least in the sense that the money for flyers, 
meetings, posters, ads, renting spaces, etc doesn't have to come out of 
your pocket personally.  is there much Washtech activity in your 
immediate area?  I've been curious about their level of militancy as a 
high-tech worker union, which I expect is low.  Anyway, their site may 
be of interest:

http://www.unionvoice.org/washtech/home.html

Also, I've gotten a great review of this NYU Press book, which may be 
of interest to you as an historical background to Silicon Valley 
struggles if you haven't heard about it.

e.

The Silicon Valley of Dreams	$19.00
Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global 
Economy
David Naguib Pellow and Lisa Sun-Hee Park
ISBN 0814767109
320 pages
Paperback
Publication date: 12/22/2002

"An important contribution to the environmental sociology literature."
— Choice

"Powerful, compelling and revealing. Pellow and Park weave a 
fascinating story of both the historical and current domination of 
gender, class and race in Silicon Valley."
— Alternatives Journal

"The Silicon Valley of Dreams . . . exposes the numerous inequities 
that plague the area, from the huge number of temporary workers, the 
highest per capita in the nation, to the obvious absence of union jobs."
—Conscious Choice

"The authors of [this] important [book] share a sense of compassion for 
and commitment to the struggle of labor, community, civil rights and 
environmental activists."
—Los Angeles Times

"The Silicon Valley of Dreams provides a progressive intervention into 
environmental sociology and into public discourse on the relationship 
between immigration and environment."
— American Journal of Sociology

"Critical reading for students and scholars in ethnic studies, 
immigration, urban studies, gender studies, social movements and 
environmental studies, as well as activists and policy-makers working 
to address the need of workers, communities and industry."
—Educational Book Review

Next to the nuclear industry, the largest producer of contaminants in 
the air, land, and water is the electronics industry. Silicon Valley 
hosts the highest density of Superfund sites anywhere in the nation and 
leads the country in the number of temporary workers per capita and in 
workforce gender inequities. Silicon Valley offers a sobering 
illustration of environmental inequality and other problems that are 
increasingly linked to the globalization of the world's economies.

In The Silicon Valley of Dreams, the authors take a hard look at the 
high-tech region of Silicon Valley to examine environmental racism 
within the context of immigrant patterns, labor markets, and the 
historical patterns of colonialism. One cannot understand Silicon 
Valley or the high-tech global economy in general, they contend, 
without also understanding the role people of color play in the labor 
force, working in the electronic industry's toxic environments. These 
toxic work environments produce chemical pollution that, in turn, 
disrupts the ecosystems of surrounding communities inhabited by people 
of color and immigrants. The authors trace the origins of this 
exploitation and provide a new understanding of the present-day 
struggles for occupational health and safety.

The Silicon Valley of Dreams will be critical reading for students and 
scholars in ethnic studies, immigration, urban studies, gender studies, 
social movements, and the environment, as well as activists and 
policy-makers working to address the needs of workers, communities, and 
industry.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Pellow is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies andDirector, 
California Cultures in Comparative Perspective at University of 
California, San Diego. He is the author of Garbage Wars: The Struggle 
for Environmental Justice in Chicago and Urban Recycling and the Search 
for Sustainable Community. Lisa Sun-Hee Park is Assistant Professor of 
Ethnic Studies and Urban Studies and Planning at University of 
California, San Diego.


On Thursday, Apr 22, 2004, at 05:55 Canada/Eastern, steve again wrote:

>> Do any of you have experience waging workplace
>> struggles
>> in the IT or Technological area?
>
> If you mean conscious, collective, open struggles like a strike then 
> no.
>
> I've been working in IT in London, UK, for the best part of a decade 
> now, so I've picked up a few anecdotes and stories about collective 
> struggles.
>
> There are quite a few instances of unionised IT departments or 
> sections going on strike as key workers. This is in the case of an 
> employer not being an IT business, but the union just bringing out a 
> few workers as a matter of strategy. I've heard of this a few times in 
> the case of local government and also in Engineering. As a strategy 
> results seem to vary from 'unsuccessful' to 'disasterous', but I 
> digress.
>
> Another kind of struggle I've heard of happens in IT companies, 
> software companies. Eg, one company wanted to move its offices out of 
> London, in order to save money on rent. A large part of the workforce 
> made it clear that they would resign rather than relocate. The move 
> was abandoned. In another example, a software company was bought by a 
> larger company. They said, from now on everyone has to wear a suit. 
> Everyone threatened to resign. The new dress code was dropped. Neither 
> company was unionised.
>
> Its worth pointing out that both the latter examples occurred before 
> the IT bubble burst, ie when there was a big demand for IT workers 
> from almost all sectors. Very different from what I hear is the 
> situation in the US now, where there is a surplus in many sectors of 
> IT work (but by no means all).
>
> Apart from these kinds collective struggles, there is of course lots 
> of insubordination, slacking off, using specialised knowledge to 
> bullshit managers, 'working from home'. Some of this is not quite 
> individualised, but perhaps not quite consciously openly collective 
> either.
>
> In my experience, IT work isn't so very different from other sorts of 
> work I've done in terms of worker's obstruction of managment. Not much 
> union style activity, plenty of ducking and diving. More variation 
> between employers than between type of work.
>
> Seen this? Its kind of unionist.
> http://www.techsunite.org/index.cfm
> There's a silicon valley section.
>
> Seen this? There's a lot of anti-visa stuff :( but it's more varied 
> than that.
> http://www.unemployedit.com/forums/default.asp
>
> Good luck with what your doing.
>
> steve
>
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