Reverend Jesse Jackson and a group of 100 protesters battled the rain in Silicon Valley Thursday, as they led a protest on Apple's Cupertino campus, calling for better working conditions for Apple's service workers.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, the protesters, including members of the United Service Workers West union, want Apple to take a leading role in improving treatment of the thousands of security guards, food workers, and other service people who work on cushy tech campuses like Apple's. In particular, United Service Workers West wants to unionize Apple's security guards, which would lead to better wages. To prove they're not alone, the protesters brought with them a petition signed by 20,000 people demanding better wages and working conditions for contract workers.
Meanwhile, Reverend Jackson led the group in a call-and-response, repeating, "We marvel at the growth of high tech and biotech, but we are the foundation."
This is just the latest development in the ongoing debate over inequality in the Bay Area. As companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook lavish high salaries and expensive perks on their internal employees, the service workers at these companies lead a very different lifestyle. Late last year, Google's buses, which shuttle workers to its Mountain View campus, became a particular point of conflict. Protestors who blocked the buses at city bus stops viewed them as yet another symbol that the city of San Francisco, where the cost of living has already soared, has been overtaken by the tech sector, leaving no room for the middle class.
By April, protesters had begun targeting the homes of individual Google employees, including former Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose. One flyer being passed around his neighborhood at the time read, “As a partner venture capitalist at Google Ventures, Kevin directs the flow of capital from Google into the tech startup bubble that is destroying San Francisco.”
The public outcry has spurred some action by major tech companies. During the protests earlier this year, for instance, Google donated nearly $7 million to fund free rides for low income children on San Francisco’s city buses. And on Friday, the city of San Francisco announced that Google is donating $2 million to local non profits that benefit the city’s homeless.
And yet, the Apple protest proves the problem of inequality in the Bay Area and tech in general is still very much ongoing. Rev. Jackson has taken a particularly active role in urging tech companies to take diversity within their organizations more seriously. Just days ago, in fact, USA Today reported that Jackson met with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss inclusiveness at Apple. He also recently met with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and plans to meet with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.
But even as these companies vow to make progress on internal diversity, their relationship with external contract workers remains strained. Activists like Jackson hope that Apple can use its position as a trendsetter to change conditions on its own campus and beyond. As one protestor from the California Labor Federation yelled Thursday, "It's time for Apple to think different."
