Marcus Courtney Quotations

Overall, you can clearly tell what their goal is. In terms of what they're paying out in annual increases to employees, they're trying to hold the line well below 3 percent a year.

The Alliance at IBM is still an active campaign, but we've not been able to build enough support to get to the point to have a vote, ... But the pension changes there, or the cutbacks and pension changes just announced at Hewlett Packard show the need for unions. They're unilateral, with no one in position to speak for the employees being affected.

We've been monitoring the online bulletin boards and responding with e-mail messages. But, to be honest with you, our overtures haven't lead to any kind of concrete contacts.

This campaign should end the myth that high-tech workers in the new economy do not want to seek representation on the job and that unions are irrelevant in the 21 st century.

It's a classic example of what always happens when workers have issues with management,

It's very bold that Gates is coming out and saying that. It's definitely something that people need to be paying attention to.

Serious red flags were raised about the fact that the only customer service facility eliminated was the one trying to organize in a very anti-union company,

I know the IGDA describes itself as 'union neutral,' ... but I don't think enabling conversation is necessarily a stand in favor of unions, is it? I mean, the employees still have to make a choice as to whether they want to organize or not. We're not asking for an endorsement. There's just so much we can do without partners to help facilitate the conversation.

Clearly, the pixie dust for tech workers has worn off,

If employers are seeing less increases in their healthcare costs, those savings are not passed on to employees but mostly shifted into the bottom line to please shareholders.

The high-tech industry is well known for the idea of long work hours with uncompensated overtime. As the finance and rewards have declined after the recession and companies are getting leaner and meaner, workers are less willing to be putting in the long hours without getting compensated.

The industry's relentless downsizing, health care cost shifting, job exporting and visa importing strategies are causing tech workers to be less optimistic about their futures in one of America's most important industries.

The GAO has clearly stated in this report that outsourcing of U.S. jobs abroad can not be ignored, and the government needs to act in order to address the issue in terms of data collection and policy solutions.