Burn, Baby, Burn!

I wrote in these pages last week that while I supported the, uhm, "legally enforced restructuring" of Microsoft, I didn't think Judge Jackson's plan made much sense. I recommended a more radical, but rational breakup plan that would do far more to invigorate the hi-tech industry.

Abusing their monopolistic position to harm consumers and other companies isn't the only nasty trick in Microsoft's bag; they also tend to treat employees like crap. Let's speak plainly: Microsoft treats non-technical workers like slaves; and, in fact, it's one of the biggest users of slave, I mean, prison labor in the state of Washington. Microsoft also, according to the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, routinely breaks WA employment law by maintaining personnel files (a less hi-tech form of surveillance) but denies employees access to those files, which is a clear violation of the law.

A Seattle-based high-tech union is calling on elected officials to take action in response to Microsoft's continued violation of a state law that guarantees workers access to personnel files kept on them by employers.

Based on information supplied by company sources, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech) has documented that Microsoft keeps personnel files - including performance evaluations and "eligibility ratings" -- on more than 10,000 current and former contract workers. Microsoft employs more than 5,500 workers -- including approximately 30 percent of its total Seattle-area workforce -- through employment agencies. Microsoft consults these files when making all hiring decisions for contract and permanent positions at the company.

While keeping such personnel files is not illegal, denying workers access to them violates Washington state law. In January of this year, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries declared that the records Microsoft keeps on its agency contractors are indeed "personnel files" under state law, despite company claims to the contrary, and that Microsoft is obligated to grant workers access to the files. Despite this agency opinion, and mounting complaints filed with the state by workers seeking access to these files, Microsoft refuses to comply with the statute.

I have for several years now advocated the importance of collective action and solidarity to my fellow Geeks. I'm clearly no Big Bill Heyward, but I figured out pretty quickly that the power of a national technology union would be fairly unstoppable. Just imagine that, in solidarity with brother and sister workers in, say, sanitation, 70% of the programmers in America refused to work, or engaged in work slowdowns, until sanitation workers were paid a living wage? Corporations would move to support a living wage for sanitation workers so fast it would make your head spin.

Scabs? Please! Real programmers can hardly do their job right and on time! Ain't no way scabs are gonna do it better...