More labor unrest at Microsoft: Custodians want subcontractor to restore jobs

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/03/16/more_labor_unrest_at_microsoft_custodians_want_sub.html

March 16, 2009 5:28 PM

Posted by Benjamin J. Romano

Members of the Service Employees International Union Local 6 demonstrated at Microsoft's Redmond campus for a second day Monday. Their gripe is not with the software giant but with a subcontractor, SBM Site Services of Sacramento, Calif., which was awarded the custodial contract in December to clean buildings at the corporate campus.

Since then, SBM has reduced the number of workers on the contract to 300. Jessica Berg, a spokesperson, said the company has laid off only 10 workers. The SEIU agrees that there are about 300 workers on the contract now, but says that represents a reduction of 60 jobs from the previous subcontractor, ABM Janitorial Services. Fred Prockiw, an organizer with Local 6, said ABM employed about 360 people for the same workload. A representative of ABM could not immediately be reached.

The remaining employees say they're being asked to make up the slack.

"The workload's too much," said Dirk Koteles, 56, who picks up trash and sweeps Microsoft's parking garages for $12.50 an hour, plus medical benefits. "They won't give us overtime to do all this extra stuff. They expect us to get everything done in eight hours."

SBM Site Services performs the custodial work at Microsoft as a subcontractor for Grubb & Ellis, which manages the buildings on the company's headquarters campus. A Grubb & Ellis representative could not be reached for comment.

Berg said the decision to downsize was "purely internal."

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