Where's Phil? Microsoft temp protest may be losing steam |
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Where's Phil? Microsoft temp protest may be losing steam
I stopped by the main entrance to the Microsoft campus Wednesday evening hoping to catch up with Phil Palios, the Microsoft contract worker who organized the protest of the pay cuts affecting company's temporary workforce. Palios had said he planned to stand vigil at the site every evening for two weeks. But the corner was empty.
Reached via phone today, Palios made it clear that something has changed with his situation but he wasn't ready to go into detail, saying he's working on a message to explain the situation to people who have been asking. When I asked if he had rejected his contract alteration, as previously expected, he declined to say.
[Update: Microsoft protest organizer has change of heart, agrees to cuts.]
The contract workers have contended that the temporary agencies that employ them shouldn't be able to enforce a pay cut because they had a binding agreement. The cuts followed Microsoft's decision to reduce, by 10 percent, the amount it pays the agencies for workers on existing temporary assignments.
Palios won praise from some people who admired him for standing up against the cutbacks, but he also faced criticism from people who pointed out that he had it pretty good already, as a 23-year-old without a college degree making $70,000 a year.
Separately, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers said this week that it wasn't in a position to try to organize the Microsoft contract workers.
About Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle.
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