Workers Rights, Workers Lives, Organizing in Silicon Valley

Millions of workers have come to the Bay Area and Silicon Valley to work and live. The conference will hear from workers who are fighting for union and worker rights in Silicon valley from service workers to tech workers. While billionaires are being made every year in Silicon valley the workers who make their money are facing extreme economic hardship, struggling to survive. The unionization of thousands of contract workers at companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook has raised their living conditions but the massive housing crisis and inability for workers to live in Silicon Valley forces workers into their cars, spending hours commuting on the road. At the same time the racist attack on immigrant workers, including in Silicon Valley, is harming not just service workers but immigrants from throughout the world who now work in the Valley. Discrimination against their wives and families is escalating as xenophobia grows. We will hear as well about how tech workers are working with service workers to defend union and immigrant rights, and joining in solidarity.
Initial Speakers:
Rebeca Armendariz, SEIU-USWW Senior Community Political Organizer
Mehmet Bayron, Software exploitation and automation of tech workers
Bob Emmett, SEIU-USWW security guard
Edward Escobar, The Alliance for Independent Workers
Maria Noel Fernandez, Deputy Executive Director, Working Partnerships USA
Maria Gonzalez, Tech worker who was sexually assaulted at work
Amanda Hawes, Founder of SCCOSH and legal advocate for electronics workers and their children harmed by workplace toxics
Karthik Ramanathan, Immigrant Tech Worker
Ruth Silver Taube, Labor and Human Rights Lawyer, Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition

Tentative Program
9:30 AM Registration
10:00 AM Conference Opens
The Struggles For Service Workers In Silicon Valley
12:00 Lunch
1:00 PM
Human Rights And Silicon Valley-The Attack on Immigrant Workers
2:00 PM
Tech Workers, Tech Billionaires And The Future of Work
3:30 PM
Proposals For Action, Solidarity and Unity
4:00 PM Conference Closes

Sponsored by:
Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition, LaborNet.org, LaborTech.net, LaborFest.
Contact for conference: (408) 621-5678, (415) 533-5942

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