Find out if you are eligible for Trade Adjusting Assistance (TAA)

 TAA (Trade Adjusting Assistance) is a training assistance offered by the Department of Labor to workers who are considered eligible because they lost their jobs because of outsourcing outside of the US. 

We had started a certification procedure in February and we learned recently that the Tier1s laid off after our bargaining agreement were considered eligible for such assistance. 

There are restrictions to this offer: if you have already found a better job than the one you had with Lionbridge I don't think you can apply but if not, If you are still unemployed or if you are 'less' employed than with Lionbridge you could be eligible for help.

I cannot be more precise at this point as I am not a TAA specialist but each of you should be contacted and offered this opportunity by the Washington State Department of Labor.

The union would like to know if/when you are contacted (to check that it does happen) and what if anything is offered to you (to evaluate the value of the TAA program). Hope this help those of you who can use it and please let us know if/how it works for you.

Lionbridge Announces Stockholder Approval and Closing of Acquisition by H.I.G. Capital for about $360 million

See press release below.

Chronology 2017

January 23, 2017: The American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution launch a joint blog project: Paid family leave: an issue whose time has come

February 8, 2017: Newly created group, Pay + Leave USA launches its paid leave campaign targeting Starbucks discriminatory policies.

February 16, 2017: TWA files a petition for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). TAA is a federal program that assists US workers who lose their jobs as a result of foreign trade, like when the worker's firm has shifted provision of services to a foreign country. "This program seeks to provide affected workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, credentials, resources and support necessary to become reemployed."

New charges filed with NLRB against Lionbridge and Microsoft for Unfair Labor Practices and Joint Employment

On December 13, 2016, TWA filed charges with NLRB against Lionbridge and Microsoft for Unfair Labor Practices (bargaining in bad faith) and anti-union (retaliation) and again joint employment. Mentioned is the runaway shop doctrine where a company closes a site to move the work to non-unionized places.
References: Microsoft Corporation Case 19-CA-189881
Microsoft Corporation Case 19-CA-189865
Lionbridge Case 19-CA 189865, 189868

Does the closure of the lab in Bellevue and its relocation out of the US constitute a "Runaway Shop' ?

From the start we have been suspicious about the way Lionbridge and Microsoft decided to close the lab in Bellevue, lay off all its employees and relocate the work in labs out of the US (in Warsaw and Beijing). This decision came hardly two months after a collective bargaining agreement had been signed that included the union abandoning its charge against Microsoft for joint employment.

Lionbridge Technologies to be acquired by HIG Capital

See the press release here.

Geekwire.com: Microsoft supplier Lionbridge lays off all its unionnized workers

Article by Nat levy on Geekwire.com. Read also the interesting comment about arbitration and the NLRB.