Silicon Valley cafeteria workers look to unionize

A labor showdown between foodservice workers and contractors to the high-tech companies of Silicon Valley could come to a head at the headquarters of Intel, the computer chip maker.

The workers complain about the high cost of living in the area and the disparity between their pay and the salaries of executives employed by the region’s giants. Unite Here, a union for foodservice and hotel workers, is using the economic struggle to encourage the workers to unionize.

The current focus is on organizing the workers at Intel’s cafeteria, which is managed by Guckenheimer. Publicity materials issued by the union note that the majority of tech workers in the area are Caucasian and have an average annual income of $264,000, while 77 percent of the foodservice workforce is Latino and earns just over $24,000 a year.

“Even though we are contracted workers, I serve the Intel community and Intel benefits from my work,” Monica Moreno, a cashier at Intel, said in a prepared statement provided by the union. “All workers at tech companies deserve to be treated with respect. For me, respect means having enough income to pay for bills, for rent, to have a secure job.”

This is not the first brush between Guckenheimer and Unite Here, which lost its representation of the cafeteria workers when Guckenheimer assumed the management contract. As FSD reported back in Nov. 2014, 70 unionized foodservice workers were in danger of losing their jobs when Guckenheimer became the foodservice provider. The union urged Intel to require that Guckenheimer keep the team members on staff, but the tech company said it had no authority to do so, which ultimately resulted in the 70 people being terminated.

Intel plans on changing food contractors again at the end of February, Unite says.