On July 24, 2017 we received an email from Lionbridge's counsel, Tim O'Connell about the possibility of a settlement that would include a withdrawal of the NLRB charges we filed against Lionbridge and Microsoft in December 2016. Yesterday, Tuesday August 15, a meeting took place with him in Stoel Rives Seattle's office.
Mr. O'Connell explained that Lionbridge was considering offering preferential re-hiring to ex-Tier1s employees. He mentioned 4 ex-Tier1s had already been rehired so maybe others could join them provided they meet the necessary qualifications for the new positions. We mentioned that our own outreach had not brought a lot of interest or support for this re-hiring offer from the union members who replied to us but it was certainly worth considering along with what the TAA program can bring. Meanwhile we explained that we felt withdrawing the Unfair Labor Practices and Joint Employment charges filed against Lionbridge and Microsodft, that we are taking very seriously, would require from Lionbridge significant compensation for the ex-Tier1s employees who were impacted by those practices. We agreed to meet again within the next weeks with a proposal for Lionbridge. Mr O'Connell explained that the new Lionbridge owners wish to "move on" and put an end to the dispute. The Union was created to obtain basic key benefits (paid public holidays, paid vacation, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, better pay, health insurance) that were not provided to the Tier1s under the pretext they were 'temporary' workers (even after more than 9 months or years of presence) and not 'regular' employees. While we finally obtained some paid time off at the end of 2015 (thanks to Microsoft's new requirements for its suppliers) we still worked for many years (the lab was open on December 5, 2011) without key benefits we should have received and without any pay raise. We want to obtain compensation for those years. We'll keep you informed about the evolution of this discussion.
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