The US technology industry sees a growing wave of activism among its employees



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US employees in the technology sector are acting collectively as never before as part of a broad campaign to improve working conditions, job security, higher wages, etc., reported Sunday the Associated Press.

Despite six-figure salaries and unlimited vacation time, many technicians questioned the effects of their work and joined forces with their blue-collar counterparts, service and contract employees, calling for better working conditions and better wages.

Technicians are mobilizing to support Facebook cafeteria employees in San Francisco last month. (AP Photo / Samantha Maldonado)

Technicians are mobilizing to support Facebook cafeteria employees in San Francisco last month. (AP Photo / Samantha Maldonado)

"This is unprecedented, both by the magnitude of the power of these companies and by the willingness of white-collar employees to shake themselves up to enjoy the privilege they enjoy and truly see the company." impact of their work, "said Veena Dubal, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law who interviewed dozens of technology workers involved in the organization.

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They feel emboldened because of national and global "existential crises" and the realization that technology companies "have more power than any multinational for a long time," said Dubal.

Among the larger activists, Amazon and Microsoft employees have asked companies to stop providing services to software company Palantir, which provides technology to federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the American army; Amazon employees urged the company to switch to renewable energy and confronted CEO, Jeff Bezos, at a shareholder meeting. and, after last year's discussion of Google's handling of sexual misconduct, employees signed a protest letter against the Dragonfly project, a search engine that respects Chinese censorship.

The phenomenon has been particularly strong in the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes Salesforce, Google, and Palantir.

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The bastion of activism and progressive culture has been hard hit by the housing affordability crisis of the technology boom.

"People are being asked to create a lot of power for the shareholders of these companies and their management," said Ian Busher, a 28-year-old contract analyst at Google and organizer of the Bay Area Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America. "If you want to make the world a better place, you need to use judgment and democracy with the people you work with to create these tools."

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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