How are we height-tech engineers any different than university professors, airline pilots, nurses, etc that get protection from corporate greed through their unions?
19 replies (most recent on top)
Unions were the answer 70 years ago when people literally died on the job. In 2016 unions are no longer needed and are a relic of the ancient past.
Also, even with a union they can point to financials as a legit reason to downsize. That, and people will say "look, the lowest performers want a union, hahaha"... Just saying
A good idea. Be aware however that Intel is a "global" company. Their long term plan has probably been to dump most if not all north american IT workers and shift most of the work to India and other overseas hubs where the average salary per worker is closer to $20k/year.
For this to be effective, it must be sudden, involve as many people as possible, and even IT workers outside of Intel (the more of Silicon Valley and East coast, the better). A "walk out" must be both physical and cyber. Those with access to internal equipment should be allowed to cross picket lines for obvious reasons. H1B scabs make great grunt coders, but they often do not have the domain or infrastructure experience their north american counterparts do. Their youth is their achilles heel. Americans built the company, and they can shut it down.
I wouldn't recommend walking out, it's considered subordination and punishable by immediate term due to misconduct. Sadly, your best option is to get your resume updated, linkedIn and start networking. Intel, HR Legal and BAIN have already factored these considerations into the RIF plans, and they are prepared to address any scenario of revolt. What they are doing is extremely unfair but its not illegal and they pay their attorneys to ensure their liability risk is minimal. In case no one gets it by now, HR at Intel (and many other employers) does not exist to protect employees, it exists to mitigate risk of exposure and liability to the agency, which is the company. Also important to know is that 90% of the HR Legal Team have law degrees.
Just do it. Nothing more poweful than when people unite. . BK is.a SOB
To unionize would show bravery and character I don't think we have at Intel. We definitely don't have a critical mass since people from other non western countries would not join. The flight is lost for everyone who is an employee. The h1B guys are destroying the very thing they came to America for - decent working conditions and pay. Now it's every man for themselves.
Next year you will complain about Indians stealing your job.
Easiest way to spread this would be to use facebook or twitter and spread the words. I am sure many of us would join. This weekend is the only Tim we have..
A walkout is very interesting. How is it done? How do you coordinate tens of thousands of blue badges overnight?
What if we all just walk out on Monday morning? If those fab stops just for a day, do they know how much money they will loose? They this is not gonna happen and that is why they can rule.
After years of hard working, loyalty, this is what we have while those BK and his staffs are cheering for their raises. Something is sereiously broken and that makes me throw up.
Intel can not and will not hire contingent workforce. The workflows and job descriptions in Intel are way too complicated even for the experienced, leave alone temps hired over night. What they will do as a contingency plan is to open a fab or two overseas and pay over time.
I agree. We would have to draft the charter carefully. I don't think that we want get involved with every employee/manager decision. We want reasonable employment and termination conditions. This should include some negotiations on replacing experienced workers with H1-Bs or continent workers.
just keep in mind that if ees do unionize, Intel will rely on contingent workforce as they will not want to hire union workers simply due to the fact they will not be able to terminate them or regulate their wages/benefits. Unionizing does have some consequences though its definitely a tempting thought...
This is an opportunity for us EEs to organize and negotiate for ourselves. We have given our best years to this organization. While it is business, the impact can not be so disproportionately on the workers. Corporations owe their employees a reasonable exit path at a minimum which should be negotiated between the employer and the employees. Without a union, we are at the mercy of the employer.
It has to be the right type of union. I would not be for a union that says I should get the same raise if I got an excellent review and the other person had a horrible review. This union would be needed to fight jobs going over seas, limiting H1's, reversing poor management decisions etc. I'm all for joining people rallying against some of BK and his management policies.
Intel HR has extensive training from SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) to prevent employees from unionizing. In fact, be prepared for a series of presentations to come out from HR in the coming months for those employees who remain, where they will outline why unions are "detrimental" to the business as a means to scare employees into not unionizing. This is one of the steps in the project plan for RIFs, the lever only gets pulled if massive dissension is detected among the ees after an action. I have personally delivered one of these presentations to ees after a large RIF. Not widely known, but Intel is scared to death that its employees will unionize in the United States.
I would be with you in that effort. Our public policy is anti-employees and certain management teams take full advantage of it. Putting 12,000 families on the street In a week while MCM enjoys raises and bonuses should be unacceptable. How has MCM outperformed if we are in the hire and fire cycle year after year?
Vote for Bernie so BK can feel the Burnnn.
United we stand divided we fall
I've been very anti union my entire life and I wouldn't want the union negotiating my raise or anything like that, but over the past few years I've changed my tune. If everyone walked out on Monday, I'm sure that would get their attention. Let's see what happens when the fab's get shut down or stuff not designed. BK and his team of horrible upper managment(BTW, that's where the diversity really needs to occur) would probably crap a brick. I think there would be some benefit in joining together to fight these cuts and some of the other crap going on within the company.