Laborfest: Conference on Organizing in Silicon Valley

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 whose labor provides their profits 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 Bob Emmett, SEIU-USWW security guard Maria Gonzalez, Tech worker who was sexually assaulted at work, Karthik Ramanathan, Immigrant Tech Worker Ruth Silver Taube, Labor and Human Rights Lawyer Silicon Valley Service Workers Tech Workers Coalition
Sponsored by LaborNet.org, LaborTech.net
See also:
http://www.seiu-usww.org/
http://www.labornet.org/
http://www.labortech.net/
http://www.laborfest.net/wp/event/labortech-san-jose-silicon-valley/