Hello everyone, The case below poses some interesting questions regarding today's economy and management shenanigans to keep out unions. Any answers, advice or comments would be very helpful. Please be sure to include Philippe Boucher in your replies. Thanks, Tess From: Philippe Boucher <temporaryworkersofamerica@gmail.com<mailto:temporaryworkersofamerica@gmail.com>> Date: September 25, 2016 at 08:45:20 PDT To: T<mailto:tess.ewing@umb.edu>ess.Ewing@umb.edu<mailto:tess.ewing@umb.edu> Cc: George Gonos <gonosgc@potsdam.edu<mailto:gonosgc@potsdam.edu>> Subject: Fwd: About the Lionbridge layoffs Hi Tess, I am following George Gonos suggestion to get in touch with you about what happened to us in the hope you can help us figure out what if anything we can do about the layoffs announced by Lionbridge Technologies within a contract with Microsoft. Temporary Workers of America is a baby union officially born on september 11 2014 when we won the vote to represent the workers of a lab certifying apps for Microsoft with workers directly employed by Lionbridge Technologies. The lab was based first on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, then in a building rented by Microsoft in Bellevue and lastly in an office rented by Lionbridge. Our story is a bit long but I think the last months are the most relevant as well as the fact that on October 8 2015 we had filed with NLRB a charge against Microsoft claiming they were a joint employer, refusing to come to the bargaining table. After Lionbridge tried to decertify the union in May/June 2016 a move we blocked by charging them with interference and promises to the workers in exchange of the decertification, we we were contacted at the end of 2016 because Lionbridge was considering lay offs and suddenly wanted to bargain. My personal hunch was that the only thing Lionbridge (and Microsoft) wanted was that we dropped the joint employment charge as it was proving to be a thorn in Microsoft foot as they had lost their appeal with NLRB to provide their contract with Lionbridge). That we dropped the charge was a condition for any agreement. I was concerned that the charge was sort of an insurance for us and that if we dropped it we would become very vulnerable but the co-workers negotiating were in majority if favor of accepting a deal with Lionbridge, even in exchange of the charge. I am sure you know how people can become exhausted and tired and fed up... Anyway. The deal was signed and ratified by a vote of the workers on August 3: 30 to 1. Following the vote and in accordance with what had been discussed we dropped the charge against MSFT and 12 people were laid off (with the severance negotiated), 6 leaving voluntarily, 6 selected. Less than 2 months later, on wednesday September 21, Lionbridge announces during the weekly 'stand up' meeting that they plan to lay off everybody within a month due to "business needs and adjusted volumes" (see the text of the email sent one day later by the manager). According to the people I emailed with they did not notice any significant reduction of their workload and to this day the union has not been contacted by the management about this layoff. As you can see I have emailed the NLRB person who had been managing the charge against Microsoft to try to figure out if there was any way we could claim that this layoff was in fact a retaliation for our organizing, especially the charge against Microsoft. It really looks like the workers have been cheated of their agreement to bargain (including dropping the charge against Microsoft) and that as soon as this was done, the closing of the whole lab was announced. Considering that Microsoft is the determining factor I cannot believe the layoff was decided by Lionbridge without Microsoft pushing for it. From what NLRB explains our capacity to contest the layoff seems pretty limited but I am concerned that doing nothing would just be accepting this maneuver that also (very probably part of the motivation) sends the message that 'this is what you get when you unionize: you lose your job". A few managing people from Lionbridge were moved to another company that does a similar job but has no union... Anyway. I wonder if you and any of your members would have any suggestion for us. Beyond our very small group of workers I think this is a very symbolic issue for all the people employed by Microsoft via contractors (40K in our region) and all the other high tech companies using contractors that most often provide no or very limited benefits. I should add that we have no resources ($10 at our credit union account) and the established unions have been unwilling to help out. In any case we were hoping investigating the causes of the layoff would be for NLRB to do but maybe not? Sorry to bug you with this but I thought i would follow George's advice. Details on our story (without details about the most recent layoff) are on http://paidtimeoffmatters.com http://lionbridgeunion.blogspot.com Thank you Philippe Boucher for Temporary Workers of America