From the San Jose Mercury-News:
Judge OKs class-action suit against Apple, Intel, Google, Adobe
By Steve Johnson
sjohnson@mercurynews.com
SAN JOSE -- More than 60,000 tech workers can seek monetary damages from Apple (AAPL), Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG) and Adobe Systems (ADBE) because of a federal judge's ruling in a suit claiming that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs conspired with other local executives to limit the workers' pay by barring them from moving from one company to another.
In granting class-action status to the suit Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose cited what she termed "considerable, compelling common proof" that the Silicon Valley companies engaged in antitrust behavior by agreeing not to try to lure away each others' employees.
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34 comments:
"conspired with other local executives to limit the workers' pay by barring them from moving from one company to another": how terribly old-fashioned of him.
In the Britain of decades ago, firms would impede worker movement by effectively confiscating their pensions if they left. You can guess who put a stop to that nonsense: the Blessed Margaret.
Dilberts of the world unite!
You have only your cubicles to lose!
For God's sake, Steve Jobs, didn't you have enough money?
"Limit the workers' pay"
H-1B. That whiskey is already way on the other side of the bridge.
This is so awesome, first the story about Twitter having too many whites at the top, and now this story going after the big tech companies. It would be very satisfying to see these big ultra liberal donars and preachers being devoured by their own liberal creations.
Steve, it's a bit funny how selective and biased you can be. If this were a lawsuit brought by minorities, you would call it a 'shakedown.'
Hello libertarians, are you reading this?
I'm sure it turns out that the owners organizing against the workers is untrammeled freedom, the workers organizing against the owners is *hissss* evil collectivism.
Yeah, but now he's dead, gone at age fifty-six. Money didn't help him make it to a hundred. Perhaps there's an acquisitiveness gene that's a holdover from primordial days of feast-or-famine which is no longer needed for survival today but can't be switched off in some people. His widow is as a result wealthy and gets to play at being a very important person whose views on such things as ijitmakashun are taken seriously, all the while being escorted around by the gigolo of the moment.
In 1992 when MIT lost its antitrust case, after refusing the "settlement" (i.e. no fines, promise not to be bad again) the others had agreed to, the attorney general predicted MIT/Ivy League tuition would now be lower, which no one believed, but also raised the spectre of a class action lawsuit from bilked customers. Considering the university had spent a million-plus fighting the FTC no one believed that would happen either, and it didn't. Fast forward to 2013, with Infosys where they had blatant evidence (not antitrust but hiring discrimination) there is supposedly a settlement of <$50 million in the works. To Infosys and to other gov't contractors like Google/Oracle/MS that would just be a cost-of-bidness speeding ticket.
Since, unlike Microsoft in the 90s, the multi-cult progressive big-data lawyered-up companies in question are all favorites of the regime, I am predicting: nothing happens.
Jobs was well known as a giant ass who was a tyrant when it came to all things, but especially shareholder value. This made him an excellent CEO, but a horrible person.
Perhaps someone can ask the tech company execs about this story while they're in D.C. this week pushing for amnesty.
Your excerpt doesn't mention that Pixar (formerly owned by Jobs; actually the bulk of his fortune) and Lucasfilm were in on this.
Disney now owns both Pixar and Lucasfilm, and Disney CEO Bob Iger is one of the leaders of the "Partnership for a New American Economy," which is a major pressure group for amnesty and increased immigration.
Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, is also a major advocate for amnesty.
I'm sure the lost pay can be modeled by economists. For sixty thousand workers we are probably talking about 10 billion dollars. Still peanuts in the scheme of things.
Disney now owns both Pixar and Lucasfilm, and Disney CEO Bob Iger is one of the leaders of the "Partnership for a New American Economy," which is a major pressure group for amnesty and increased immigration.
Disney two parks are in Anaheim and Orlando. Anaheim is about 38 percent foreign born, the US average is about 13 percent. Its mainly Mexican. After the aerospace turndown in Anaheim Diseny and the rest of the resort industry pushed the city of Anaheim to be more restaurants and hotels, and for the low skilled jobs like cleaing and some cooking jobs illegals moved in from 30 percent in 1990 to 48 percent by 2000 and today at 52 percent Hispanics mainly Mexican. I found an old book that stated in the 1970's Anaheim was home to the largest number of electrics firms over 400.
Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, is also a major advocate for amnesty.
Guess who does most of the janitor and maids jobs, Mexicans.
So the now the writing is on the wall for those who want to see.
First, Silicon Valley says there are not enough Americans and we need foreigners.
Second, we find out that they have been conspiring against current workers, presumably many are Americans, to hold their wages down.
So connecting the dots, it is all about keeping salaries down. Bring in more foreigners to put downward pressure on wages. Then keep existing workers from being able to transfer from company to company to prevent a bidding war for wages. This sounds like Silicon Valley's version of baseball's Reserve Clause.
So these billionaires want to live in America, cater to the US consumer, but they want to dump the American worker. Honestly, I'd be happy if Facebook, Apple and the others just left and relocated to Bangalore or Shanghai. You'd still be able to buy their products, but we wouldn't be held captive to their political whims. They'd at least have to register as foreign agents.
Steve, it's a bit funny how selective and biased you can be. If this were a lawsuit brought by minorities, you would call it a 'shakedown.'
First, it is a lawsuit brought by minorities. All humans are minorities.
Second, it's the precise opposite of what you are probably talking about. These tech companies use one form of concentrated capital (money) to steal dispersed capital (this country and its good will) from disorganized owners -- the American people. They are bad people, and they need to be punished.
apple cash sits at 146 billion.
I think this really had to do with the most innovative trying to protect his patents. Jobs prevented bidding war anarchy by creating enough industry stability to ensure product development. These were not assembly line workers but people who possessed inside information somewhat similar to Snowden's relationship to NSA.
"Jobs prevented bidding war anarchy by creating enough industry stability to ensure product development."
The legal way to do that is by negotiating contracts with your employees. The illegal way to do that is by setting up monopsonistic cartels with your competitors.
"So connecting the dots, it is all about keeping salaries down."
Keeping salaries down, or protecting them form having to offer stock options?
I recall reading back in the 90s that over 2,000 Microsoft employees had become millionaires thanks to their stock options. I wonder what the equivalent number would be at Facebook or Google?
Steve, if you want to make an omelet you gotta break a few eggs. Jobs made his loyal employees rich beyond their wildest dreams. He was unique because of his groundbreaking vision, and yes, taste.
This whole thing sounds more like lawyers doing their thing and exploiting nit-picking technicalities knowing full well that in such a sissified era fake victimhood rules.
Another analogy besides Snowden would be inside trading in the stock market. If I work at Morgan and Stanley mergers and acquisitions I have information a lot of people want. That is what, I would imagine, poaching activity relating to Apple is like, rather than negotiating employee agreements. There would be enormous pressure from outside, totally beyond any internal agreement.
If this suit is successful, the Silicon Valley is doomed. The whole point of the SC is that computer software and hardware pros could play the field to get the best price for their services that the local market offered. They don't want to move, with their wife and kids, to Utah. But Sun Microsystems did with no harm done. More of that coming.
"Jobs made his loyal employees rich beyond their wildest dreams.
Only a small minority of them in the Cupertino HQ. The Apple Store workers get paid poorly, even though those stores do more business per square foot than probably any other retail store. And of course for every Apple worker there are 10 contract workers in China making a dollar an hour. I bet UPS made more of its workers millionaires than Apple did.
>> concentrated capital (money) to steal dispersed capital (this country and its good will) from disorganized owners
Funny, the American Indians say the same thing!
> Apple Store workers get paid poorly
When's the last time you saw one quit? If there's more people applying then quitting - Apple is paying too much.
>> The Apple Store workers get paid poorly, even though those stores do more business per square foot than probably any other retail store
If the Cardinals win the world Series, do the folks who haul the trash out of the bathrooms deserve a raise?
>> for every Apple worker there are 10 contract workers in China making a dollar an hour.
I'll be happy to place a tax on your Apple usage so we can immediately raise those salaries in China. Oh wait... you're a liberal who needs his limousine? I apologize!
I was just in an Apple store. The genius bar employee was an affirmative action hire. Utterly useless. Why should Apple pay more than the going rate and still get dragged down into the multiculti-quagmire?
They use cheap labor because Apple, like UPS, has no choice. Any excess profit goes to the shareholders, r&d, etc. and consumers get cheaper products.
I don't see why Apple shareholders shouldn't be rewarded for assuming risk and top employees for their talent. If UPS can create wealth at that level then let the market sort it out. People will want to work where the best are rewarded, not crippled by a political spoils system that punishes talent and hard work.
Only a small minority of them in the Cupertino HQ. The Apple Store workers get paid poorly, even though those stores do more business per square foot than probably any other retail store. And of course for every Apple worker there are 10 contract workers in China making a dollar an hour. I bet UPS made more of its workers millionaires than Apple did.
If they made the phone here they would probably have illegal Mexicans make it, California before a lot of outsourcing of low skilled manufacturing had Mexico women to the simple assembly part of the electrics firms in Southern Ca there was a book that confirm what I saw in Santa Ana that even in the late 1970's hired lots of Mexican immigrant women to do assembly work that was just a handful of whites In fact the lower skilled manufacturing was done by Mexicans and Asians so much that factories for certain warehousing and shipping and receiving state must know English even today.
Labor costs of assembling an iPhone are about 1% of the purchase price. Apple could build them in the US and still have comfortable profit margins on them.
The Jobs historic hearth which is in the $1.5 million range but not on the market for the near future.
UPS pays pretty well. And a lot of longtime workers became millionaires when it finally went public. I know of a delivery driver (the client of a local bank broker) whose shares were worth $12 million after the IPO.
Labor costs of assembling an iPhone are about 1% of the purchase price. Apple could build them in the US and still have comfortable profit margins on them.
There's a similar ratio on the labor cost of food. One of the biggest lies of the open borders zealots is that prices for ordinary Americans would skyrocket if they had to pay Americans to grow and produce the things they buy. They're scared to support immigration control because they don't think they'll be able to afford it.
This is another reason for California going right to left. Ronald Reagan won bigger in the West than the South because in 1980 the aerospace jobs were more in the west. In 1990 La employed 189,0000 in the aerospace, Orange County 42,000 and San Diego 28,700. In 2011 Los Angeles 59,200 and Orange County 15,000 and San Diego 11,500. Its hard to get those jobs back because of going to other states, Outsourcing and lots of automation and robots. The people that complain about California going left well it was the cutback on the industrial military complex in the early 1990's. On reason why the left hates the industrial military complex is the jobs pay better than toy manufacturers or garment work, so less welfare.
NYT, 10/29/13: Deal Reached in Inquiry Into Visa Fraud at Tech Giant
"Infosys, the giant Indian technology outsourcing company, has agreed to pay $34 million in a civil settlement after federal prosecutors in Texas found it had committed “systemic visa fraud and abuse” when bringing temporary workers from India for jobs in American businesses...The payment is the largest ever in a visa case.
The lawyers will get millions and the workers will get 5 bucks.
Are these workers on work H1-B visas?
For these visas, it is not employers that don't allow to leave them, but the current immigration law. H-1B work-authorization is strictly limited to employment by the sponsoring employer.
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