From the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2007/10/29/story3.html
Unions target emerging tech
Premium content from Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal by Timothy Roberts
Date: Sunday, October 28, 2007, 9:00pm PDT
Related:
Manufacturing
George Denise, left, building manager for Adobe, and Richard Sanchez with GCA Services
Group, attend a Building Skills Partnership graduation ceremony for 18 service workers who will
clean and maintain Adobe’s corporate headquarters in San Jose.
Timothy Roberts
Silicon Valley labor groups are considering a big push to organize the solar installation sector.
The South Bay Labor Council has long sought a path into the technology sector beyond the lowwage service jobs like janitors cleaning the high-tech headquarters.
Now the labor council is planning a move into an area of technology where the creation of a
large number of jobs with middle-class wages is expected -- the installation of solar panels.
"Our first goal was to target the folks who serve the people who work in the high-tech
buildings," says Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, the chief executive of the Labor Council.
The Labor Council has looked at ways to organize programmers and engineers, the core of hightech employment in the valley. But now it has decided to focus on an emerging tech area, getting
in at the beginning, the better to influence its development.
"There is a huge market potential and opportunity to bring manufacturing jobs to California,"
says Ellis Lamkins. "Before we look at high-tech we are going to look at emerging tech."
Solar technology and green technology in general is at the heart of hopes for economic growth in
Silicon Valley. It is seen by many planners as the new, new thing that would replace jobs
outsourced by other older technology industries.
In addition, the installation jobs are middle-class, jobs that don't require a four-year or advanced
degree. Community colleges are planning programs to meet the need for workers. Industry
association Solartech predicts that there will be a need for 10,000 solar installers and related jobs
over the next decade.
Labor could help train many of those workers, but business owners are not enthusiastic about
labor's promise of help.
Most solar technology would not break even were it not for state and federal tax credits, and
companies fear that a unionized work force would raise those costs.
"I will be strongly opposed to anything -- labor or regulations -- that would increase costs to
customers," says Barry Cinnamon, the president of Akeena Solar Inc. in Los Gatos and
president of the California chapter of the Solar Energy Industries Association. "I'm not opposed
to labor, but if someone proposes anything that would raise prices, I will oppose it."
The labor effort may also include the use of pension funds to invest in the company to create
more jobs and to leverage more influence over companies to encourage better wages and
benefits.
"We want to understand how we can leverage pension funds where we have (pension fund)
managers to affect companies we have relationships with," Ellis Lamkins says.
She said the council may have an announcement in the next 60 days on how it may invest in
solar companies.
The move into a new industry reflects a renewed emphasis on recruiting rather than just
protecting existing jobs. Over the past decade, unions have been using their pension investments
to push for changes in corporate governance, says Ken Jacobs, chairman of the University of
California at Berkeley Labor Center. "Using those funds as a way to promote development that
benefits workers and members is something that unions have become much more adept at
doing," he says.
The Labor Council's new plans come as two unions representing low-wage workers in Silicon
Valley have joined efforts in a new campaign to get big name technology companies accept
higher costs for cleaning, food service and security.
The Service Employees International Union, whose Local 1877 represents janitors and security
workers, and UNITE HERE, whose Local 19 represents food service workers, have targeted
some of the famous-name public companies in the valley like Adobe Systems Inc., Applied
Materials Inc., Genentech Inc., Electronic Arts Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc.
The campaign, known as Service Workers Rising, has included rallies at Adobe Systems Inc.
headquarters in San Jose Oct. 4 and at Genentech, Oct. 24.
The campaign tries to get the big, public companies to take a stand for the union and put pressure
on their building service contractors to increase pay and benefits.
"Why hide behind contractors who do not share our values?" asks Enrique Fernandez, business
manger of UNITE HERE Local 19.
Specifically the unions are asking the companies to pressure their building service contractors to
sign on to a Responsible Code of Conduct. Signers would agree to better pay so that service
workers "are not struggling to survive while serving at some of the most profitable corporate
headquarters in the world."
But at the same time, the SEIU and building contractors are working together to improve the
education of those low-wage workers. On Oct. 15, the Building Skills Partnership, a non-profit
created by the SEIU, building owners and building contractors, graduated 18 service workers
who clean and maintain Adobe's corporate headquarters in San Jose.
Antonio Guerrero was one of the graduates.
"Now I understand more when I speak with the people here at Adobe," he said after receiving his
diploma.
The SEIU Local 1877 contract comes up for negotiation early next year, and Richard Sanchez,
division president of GCA Services Group, which hires the janitors who clean Adobe, will be at
the negotiating table just as he was at the Building Skills graduation.
"We will negotiate in good faith as we have every three to five years since the 1960s," he says.