“As organized labor expands its efforts in Silicon Valley, a local union and civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson are pushing for better working conditions for the security guards who work at Apple’s campu,” Julia Love reports for The Mercury News.
“United Service Workers West, a regional arm of the Service Employees International Union, hopes to unionize security guards who work on Apple’s campus, and in the short term is asking Apple to use a different security contractor,” Love reports. “The campaign comes amid a growing debate about the valley’s sweeping use of contract workers, who do everything from driving shuttle buses to cooking in the cafeteria. But as the tech workers they serve are showered with eye-popping perks, service workers often struggle to make ends meet in the pricey Bay Area, advocates say.”
“Jackson, whose Rainbow PUSH Coalition helped prompt Apple and other tech companies to share diversity statistics earlier this year, wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook this month raising concerns about how the company’s security guards are treated by the contractor, Security Industry Specialists. Applauding Cook’s leadership on issues like the environment and gay rights, Jackson urged him to take a stand for service workers,” Love reports. “‘Part of the narrative of their firm is equitable and first-class leadership,’ Jackson said in an interview. ‘As they grow at such a rapid pace, they should have world-class working conditions for their workers from the bottom up.’ Jackson requested a meeting to discuss the issue with Cook but said he has yet to hear back from Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
“and in the short term is asking Apple to use a different security contractor,”
So, they are trying to help Apple security guards by making Apple fire them all?!?!?
With friends like that, who needs . . .
…enemas.
You made me snort my coffee 😂
If you axe me. LOL
Jesse Jackass is a Communist.
Jesse Jackson is not a “civil rights activist” he is a race baiting huckster only interested in $. Calling him a civil rights activist is a huge insult to real civil rights activists.
Jackson and Sharpton are the same race-baiting hateful hucksters. They do not represent true civil rights. They incite rioting and pimp companies for a shakedown while piously pretending they are helping people. The two are as credible as ISIS or the Taliban. We are ON to their deceit.
I actually met the Rev. Jackson once (in a previous life as photojournalist probably 25+ years ago.)
He was very personable and approachable, despite several enormous NFL linebacker size bodyguards close by.
He gave a very inspiring speech that day – no joke.
How things have changed.
The rev – revving up the proletariate.
Rev????? how funny is that?
His only “concern” is how much $ he can shake down Apple for.
Why not, the asshole conned Toyota out of what, about a billion wasn’t it?
Jesse Jackson got his sons a valuable Budweiser distributorship.
Damn Straight!!
Can we hear from the existing guards on how they feel about their work conditions and pay?
I read the whole article. It’s not so much about Jesse Jackson as it is about the use on contract employees by tech companies. I have no doubt Apple will do the right thing, even without (or perhaps in spite of) Jackson’s involvement. I’m sure the union leadership can speak for itself.
MDN inserted the reference to Jesse Jackson in the headline. It doesn’t appear in the original article. A little editorializing, perhaps?
Read the first sentence of the article again. Jesse is specifically mentioned.
In fact, Jesse Jackson’s name appears six times in the article.
A little clueless, perhaps?
The racebaiting, asshole, Jesse Jackson can go fuck himself.
He is exactly right. The elite classes often forget that those that serve them are part of building an even more robust economy. Henry Ford’s example is good: Anyone working for Apple in the USA ought to be able to afford an iMac, iPad and iPhone as well as a decent living. Since up unions have been crushed,mother American economy has gone real third world. I hope Tim will discuss things with the good Rev.
Ok. So we’ve gone up from “livable wage” to “should be able to afford an iMac, iPad and iPhone.” At what point do we hit the private jet?
Mike,
You’ve lived in Paris too long. (gallic shrug)
Come home before the European socialized mindset drives you fully mad.
Go start your own successful company and offer extraordinary wages and perks since it’s such a great redistributionist mantra. How’s that stuff working in France these days?
Vous ne l’avez pas construit!
Oui, oui, oui, all da’ way home! Ce est exact. Je ne ai pas construit. Mais je ne demande pas! (Merci Google Translate!)
heh.
You said: “Since up unions have been crushed,mother American economy has gone real third world.”
The reality is that since unions in the US pushed labor costs so high that they aren’t globally competitive anymore, the jobs have moved to the third world. We don’t need more of that.
i’m shocked that rev(ulsion) jackson is not in missouri with his cohort in racial harmony rev(olting) al sharpton. saw him on tv last night, he looks more and more reptilian every time I see him. scavengers bother of them.
make that both of them.
Dr. Dre should pay Jesse a visit and kick the shit out of him.
Dat his brutha. Doan kick no shit out no brutha.
Well to be fair to the security guys. In the companies I have seen, it is a shit job (I don’t know about Apple’s contractor). It is often seven days a week – on call at every moment. I’ve not seen anybody last at it long. But it must work for the companies involved, as they seem to stay in business.
The reason why security guards and other rank-and-file–type employees don’t get the same perks is because the skills they possess are not as valuable as the engineers and others who are so sought after. The simple fact is that these people are far more replaceable than software engineers or design gurus, etc. That said, I suspect these employees still receive a fair wage and probably consider their overall compensation to be pretty decent (and if it isn’t, they can go elsewhere; those kinds of jobs are needed everywhere).
It’s not like these people are turn-of-the-20th Century coal miners who had no rights or standard of living whatsoever. So I seriously doubt trying to force unionization on these people and companies will benefit anyone but Jesse Jackson and his cronies. The workers will have to pay dues and go on strike when their leaders feel rattling their sabers, and the good, hard-working employees will get to watch their union stewards stick up and support their lazy ass coworkers no matter what, because it seems like that’s what unions are all about these days.
Low skill jobs are low pay jobs. If people working in these jobs want to earn more, then they should increase their value in the market by learning higher-paying skills.
-jcr
Now the epic race hustler is lecturing Apple? Maybe the so-called reverend should go and have another marital affair or incite more riots to keep him busy.
I didn’t see much in the article about the so-called “conditions” that they want improved. It’s the same old union vs non-union shop struggle. Show me what conditions need improving, and then show me how the union will improve it. Otherwise it’s just politics. I don’t live in a high cost of living area because I can’t afford it. I wouldn’t expect to be paid very much if I took a job at a security firm.
What Jesse Jackson is doing is trying to get black people jobs that they don’t deserve where qualified people should be. The Hartsfield international airport syndrome.
Jesse tried and failed at shaming the tech companies for not having recruiters run out to the basketball courts to recruit the melanin-gifted of society and give them a good paying job (after remedial education) in the high tech industry.
Jesse noticed that the tech industry has an under-representation of people-of-color, figures there is this country-wide conspiracy to not hire black person even though if he or she is an awesome programmer with amazing productivity, and is adept at spewing slogans in a vain effort to deflect attention from the obvious forces of a free-market economy and supply & demand with workforce resources.
It amounts to “See, he don’t have a Mercedes and that’s YOUR fault.”