American Factory, a documentary on Netflix: Capital vs labor

Interesting. It's too bad a majority of workers were scared enough to vote against a union :( 
They were definitely exposed to all the same tricks, firing of pro-union workers, intense propaganda sessions (the very same stuff we were fed by Lionbridge and is fed everywhere), sudden $2 pay raise (look at what you could lose) etc... :( . At the end it's a 'classical' but not often showed in movies story of capital vs labor. 
There are many reviews if you google American Factory. I selected this article published before the film. Of course, workers would be better off with a union and the company would still make a profit (as we all know and as they already are). Hopefully it will happen asap. Later  I found this by Jon Talton for the Seattle Times.
I looked a bit more at Fuyao: they just bought a plant in Germany (that had gone bankrupt). Wondering if they have unions there. Here about labor protests in China now and in the past. 

A few films I recommend

En guerre, 2018 (At war)

Outsourced, 2006 

Willmar 8 documentary, 1981 

Norma Rae, 1979

Melinda's take on how to accelerate change

As I am working on putting out a third and updated edition of The Other Microsoft, I visited Melinda Gates, Pivotal Ventures website (here the paid leave working group, unfortunately with a broken link) and as well as the Evoke one. This extract is dedicated to gender equality but it could apply to any change, including paid leave, a topic she has said she supports. Read below the content of 'Amplify external pressure'. I'll share my comments later. Take care.

Follow them of Facebook

On Facebook and their website.

Who reports about the vote to unionize at HCL/Google in Pittsburgh?

I find it interesting to see who reports about it and who does not.
Googling (thank you Google) shows the following pieces (incomplete as I don't have unlimited time to devote to the search)
The USW press release
in Wired, by Paris Martineau
in Bloomberg News, by Mark Bergen and Josh Eidelson
Shirrin Ghaffary in Vox/Recode
Sarah Todd, for Quartz at Work where I also ddiscovered how Kickstarter is firing organizers, in this article on Slate by April Glaser.
Colin Lecher in The Verge
Pittsburgh NPR station, before the vote, by Kathleen Davis.
In the Washington Post,article by Greg Bensinger and Nitasha Tiku (one worker is quoted as saying "For him, the biggest concern was paid time off', although "Google, in April, said it would require contractor firms it works with to offer paid sick and parental leave, as well as improved health care and minimum pay of $15 per hour." But how soon should that be implemented and what were the minimal requirements, how many days etc. 
Very detailed article by Brian Conway for VICE/Motherboard section: he notes that "Martin Luther King Day and Presidents Day are paid holidays for Google workers, but not HCL contractors. As a result, several HCL contractors said they must use personal days on those holidays, as they aren’t allowed in the office without Google employees present." We faced exactly the same discrimination at Lionbridge/Microsoft. Brian also mentions that "Several contractors said they are prohibited from discussing their salaries with each other": we had the same issue with Lionbridge but few people seem to know such a prohibition is illegal. They had to change their policy after the NLRB found out while investigating one of our charges.

In Pittsburgh: success in organizing within a Google's contractor

Excellent article in The Guardian, by Julia Carrie-Wong about workers organizing to get a union, with so many similarities with our own story. In fact the vote is taking place today. All our best wishes of success, friends. We can only hope they don't play on you the run away shop strategy :(
That happened when we cornered Microsoft with an NLRB charge about them being a joint employer. Something that was too 'dangerous' for their business model, despite their claims of generosity and acceptance of unionizing, although it basically never took place (yet?) but for us. 
Visiting twitter, I just found out they won! 
They are going to be represented by United Steel Workers.
Congratulations and again all our best wishes. Considering the size of HCL, (140K employees in 44 countries) it will be interesting to see if the unionization drive spreads, including in our region as, of course HCL partners with Microsoft.
More info here about the organizing.

How Apple mistreats its temps in ireland (and elswhere)

Unfortunately a familiar story told in The Guardian by Alex Hern.

3 years of misery inside Google, the happiest company in tech.

Required reading: 3 years of misery inside Google, the happiest company in tech, by Nitasha Tiku, in Wired, August 13, 2019. How will the revolt evolve after many of the main organizers left or were let go?

The more things change, the more they stay the same: Temps 1997 - 2019

NYT May 28, 2019, by Daisuke Wakabayashi

Google shadow workforce: temps who outnumber full-time employees 

The exploitation of the temps by High Tech companies started more than 20 years earlier, Microsoft leading the way:

LA Times December 7, 1997 by Leslie Helm (later Editor of Seattle Business Magazine)

Microsoft testing limits on temp worker use  (abuse)

"And earlier this year, about 90 receptionists were fired and told that Microsoft's clerical needs would henceforth be handled by an outside provider, with which they could enlist. Along with their jobs, those employees lost their Microsoft benefits and stock options.
"We were overpaying them," said Bob Herbold, Microsoft's chief operating officer." 
And the push to use more temporary workers has paid off for the company. “Boy, it’s had a positive impact financially,” Herbold said in an interview.
From C-Net January 2002 about Herbold's compensation, who was the highest paid employee (more than twice what Gates was paid) or Seattle Times, September 30, 1997 by Michele Matassa Flores (now Executive Editor of the Seattle Times).
Microsoft's chief operating officer Bob Herbold received $1.18 million in salary and bonuses last year, and another $3 million from selling stock. 
Was he overpaid?

Google Shadow Workforce

Excellent article by Daisuke Wakabayashi in the New York Times about the exploitation of temporary workers by Google. Leslie Helm's article about Microsoft's abuse of its temps in the LA Times in December 1997. Plus ça change...

No vacation nation, revised CEPR report

Announcing here the revised report from the CEPR, revising their reports of 2007 and 2013:

Nearly 1-in-4 Americans Receive No Paid Vacation or Holidays

WASHINGTON - The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) first published a study comparing paid vacation time in the US to other rich countries in 2007 and again in 2013. In a newly revised report released today, No-Vacation Nation, Revised reports that the United States continues to be the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation time or holidays.

Lionbridge named by Forbes on of America's best employers

 If Forbes says so. They also said they were among the best employers for women in 2018 but they did not make the list one year later.