Issue 5: Let the workplace roil
22 Jun 2018
This was the week of sea change: when images of children torn from parents and families locked in cages activated the already-agitated worker to mobilize against the status quo.
Worker’s Perspective
This was the week of sea change: when images of children torn from parents and families locked in cages activated the already-agitated worker to mobilize against the status quo.
On Sunday, we brought attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the evils of U.S. immigration policies.
On Monday, conversations turned to how Microsoft employees could wield their power by speaking out against the company’s contract, and workers across the industry shared ways to take similaractionagainst border violence.
On Tuesday, Microsoft workers posted an internal letter calling for the end of their employer’s contract with ICE and users of GitHub (recently acquired by Microsoft) circulated a petition with the same demands.
On Wednesday, Trump tucked his tail between his legs and reversed the policy of separating families.
On Thursday, Amazon workers told Jeff Bezos that #TechWontBuildIt and workers set their sights on Salesforce’s CBP contract.
TODAY WE ORGANIZE, TOMORROW WE WIN
We are deeply inspired this week by the words of our fellow tech workers: “We are part of a growing movement, comprised of many across the industry who recognize the grave responsibility that those creating powerful technology have to ensure what they build is used for good, and not for harm.”
When tech company executives sign contracts that advance military interests, we, the workers, resist. We are invigorated by these examples of the power unleashed when workers stand together.
But we also know that Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s Rekognition are just the tip of the iceberg, and that our work is only beginning.
We continue to stand in solidarity with Microsoft and Amazon workers for as long as it takes. As tech workers, we renew our commitment to never “just follow orders,” but to hold ourselves, and the industry accountable.
Upcoming Events
Listen Up: Siva Vaidhyanathan on Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
Friday, 6/29 12PM online
Buy tickets
LABORFEST 2018
Kicks off with a bike tour history of labor in the bay, Sunday, 7/1 12PM at 518 Valencia in San Francisco
Full event schedule
Seattle Open Forum: #TechWontBuildIt
Monday, 7/2 8AM at Redmond Regional Library in Seattle
Facebook
TWC Monthly General Meeting
Thursday, 7/12 6:30PM at SeattleLabor Temple Association in Seattle
The Code of Conduct is in effect at all TWC events.
News
Silicon Valley families living in the shadow of Facebook’s Menlo Park campus are “ground zero” for the housing crisis created by tech employers. Facebook made $40bn in revenue last year.
“I’m not saying America’s cities are turning into dystopian technocapitalist hellscapes in which corporations operate every essential service and pull every civic string. But let’s take a tour of recent news from the metropolises.” Farhad Manjoo chronicles all our greatest nightmares in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, Santa Monica and New York.
Musk silences a whistleblower before he can finish whistleblowing.
AT&T is linked to a nonprofit fighting against net neutrality.
“Silicon Valley is in the middle of an awakening, the dawning but selective realization that their products can be used to achieve terrible ends.” This is the road that leads from a handful of motivated workers mobilizing together to “outright rebellion from within the rank and file”.
Song Of The Week
Billy Bragg - There Is Power In A Union
Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers’ blood / The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for / From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud / War has always been the bosses’ way, sir