The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Contentious pro-labor resolution adopted
By Cody Kraatz
With labor representatives and the Sunnyvale business community ultimately unable to reach a compromise after months of wrangling over a nonbinding labor ethics resolution, Sunnyvale Mayor Tony Spitaleri put it to a vote.
After much back and forth, the Sunnyvale City Council adopted it 5-2 on April 22, with councilmen Ron Swegles and Dave Whittum dissenting.
The resolution will "strongly encourage" Sunnyvale companies to hire food service, janitorial and security vendors that provide good working conditions, pay and benefits to their employees, that allow them to unionize and that retain workers when vendors are switched.
"I think that encouraging them to be responsible...is the American way in my opinion," said Spitaleri, the president of the Palo Alto Firefighters Union and a longtime union organizer whose license plate reads "UNION."
"I think this is not our role in the community," said Whittum.
The Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, which has some big-name high-tech companies among its members, opposed the resolution as unwarranted government interference with business, said its president and CEO, Suzi Blackman.
Changes were made to the wording, such as recognizing Sunnyvale businesses' commitment to workers' quality of life and removing vague and unverifiable statements made by UNITE HERE (the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union). The resolution was proposed by UNITE HERE.
Although 99 percent of the wording was agreed upon, the remaining 1 percent was immune to bargaining.
"We said labor neutrality was a big problem at the beginning," said Blackman, referring to a provision that urges companies to hire vendors that do not impede employees' efforts to create a union. "It is the sticking point."
In a separate vote, the council decided 4-3 to postpone creating a program to recognize businesses that treat their workers well.
"The goal we had is really generating a conversation with the workers and the employers and the clients [of these employers]," said Andrew Dadko, a representative. "I think this is great. We're moving forward."
Labor representatives indicated they hope to use it to gain leverage on the contractors.
Outside council chambers after the vote, roughly 40 service workers and representatives from, Service Employees International Union and The Interfaith Council on Religion, Race, Economic and Social Justice chanted and cheered in celebration.
They had painted a picture in their public comments of workers who toil in the buildings of Silicon Valley's high-tech companies, working multiple jobs for low pay, living in substandard housing and facing harassment if they try to organize. They contrasted this dark underbelly to the cushy pay and perks of those companies' regular employees.
"Despite working in Sunnyvale businesses half of my life I have been forgotten in the system," said Greg Ayers, who works in the Juniper Networks cafeteria for Redwood City-based food services vendor Guckenheimer Enterprises, Inc.
Ayers earns $11.77 per hour, roughly $24,000 per year, after working for Guckenheimer for 11 years, he said.
"We want higher pay and better treatment on the job," he said, explaining why he is working with for union representation. "We need a level playing field to do this and the code of conduct is just that."
Councilman Christopher Moylan and others argued that when companies do not take care of their workers as the resolution urges, public agencies and hospitals bear the cost.