We Feed Tech is a project of Silicon Valley Rising and UNITE HERE Local 19. Silicon Valley Rising is a coalition of labor, faith leaders, community-based organizations and workers. We aspire to a new vision for Silicon Valley where all workers, their families and communities are valued. UNITE HERE represents hospitality workers across the U.S. + Canada, including Silicon Valley food service workers.
WE ARE THE COOKS, CASHIERS + DISHWASHERS WHO FEED THE TECH INDUSTRY. There are 5,000 of us in Silicon Valley alone, and thousands more in other tech hubs like San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Austin, Los Angeles, Boston + beyond.
THE TECH INDUSTRY IS BOOMING — In Silicon Valley, tech companies made more than $100 Billion in profits in 2015 alone. Apple, Google and Facebook each earned more than a million dollars per employee in 2015.
WE’RE STRUGGLING — Our wages area fraction of high-paid direct employees of the Tech industry, but we have to try to make it in the same housing market. For us, the housing crisis is a threat to our families and our communities. These realities lead to long commutes, crowded housing + fear of eviction.
Adding insult to injury, African Americans and Latinxs are underrepresented in the ranks of those high-paid tech employees. Meanwhile, those of us who feed Tech are overwhelmingly people of color. We want to a fair share of tech’s prosperity.
BUT THERE’S A WAY FORWARD — Tech’s service workers are organizing + winning!
- FOOD SERVICE WORKERS at Intel + Cisco have already won big raises even before negotiating their first union contracts. Intel cafeteria workers already won 20% raises, job protections and free individual health insurance.
- Hundreds of BUS DRIVERS who shuttle Apple, Facebook, and Google employees (among others) to work every day have organized and won health benefits, pension contributions, holiday time, and vacation time. Drivers for Facebook now make an average pay of $27.50 an hour and have 11 holidays and 9 vacation days a year.[1]
- In May 2016, tech industry JANITORS negotiated an agreement that includes new procedures for janitors to report instances of sexual harassment and assault.
And the Tech Industry has responded. Microsoft now requires its contractors to provide its employees 15 paid days off per year. Facebook requires its contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage and provide paid sick leave.
We’re on the road to making a tech industry that provides good jobs for all … Will you join us?
1. “The contract includes 11 paid holidays; up to five weeks paid vacation; paid bereavement leave; guaranteed hours based on scheduled shifts; seniority provisions; health care for workers and the families of full time workers, fully paid by Loop; a minimum six-hour day for workers who can’t work split shifts; wage increases for workers on split shifts; pay-rate protections; guaranteed overtime; paid jury duty and more. With this contract, the average pay for workers at Loop, who live in one of the most expensive areas of the country, will be $27.50 an hour, including split differential, up from $18 an hour.” https://teamster.org/news/2015/03/facebook-teamster-shuttle-drivers-approve-contract
