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Center for Social Policy
McCormack Graduate School
University of Massachusetts Boston
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Phone: (617) 287 5550
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| Campaign attaches itself to household name |
Author(s):
Kathleen McLaughlin, Staff Writer
Source(s):
Eagle Tribune (also appeared in Salem News, Gloucester Daily Times, & Newburyport News)
Date: March 13, 2005
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Armed with Bibles, a group of labor activists approached the Gillette plant gates in Andover on
Thursday morning to deliver a letter and set of demands on behalf of temporary workers.
Gillette officials declined to meet with the group of 17 clergy, church members and organizers,
who left the letter and resolved to keep pushing Gillette to answer the complaints of Merrimack
Valley residents who work packing razors at distribution centers in Devens.
The coalition of churches and labor unions, which has gained support from state Sen. Susan C.
Tucker, D-Andover, Lawrence Mayor Michael J. Sullivan and Congressman Martin T. Meehan, D-Lowell,
wants Gillette to take responsibility for temps' grievances, although Gillette doesn't hire or
manage them, or write their checks. That work is handled by two companies Gillette contracts with,
Sonoco and Markson Rosenthal, which in turn use staffing agencies to supply part of the labor.
Merrimack Valley Project's strategy of bypassing the chain of contracts that distance Gillette from
temporary workers is unusual in campaigns on behalf of those employees. Although many companies
separate themselves from the costs and conflicts of labor through layers of subcontracting, the
coalition hopes to prod Gillette into action because Gillette is a household name.
"Gillette cares about what the public thinks. If the public is educated about these issues, people
will be outraged at the types of things that are happening to people in these jobs," Merrimack
Valley Project's lead organizer Loren McArthur said.
"That gives us an avenue to Gillette that we wouldn't have with a staffing agency."
Gillette spokesman Paul Fox acknowledged the company's vulnerability. "It is understandable,
although somewhat misleading, to put the Gillette Co. in the limelight. As a business we are
exceptionally well-known."
Although the coalition's strategy is unusual when it comes to advocating for temp workers, it is
tried-and-true in the world of activism.
"A lot of the companies we work with do have a consumer component," said Julie Tanner, corporate
advocacy coordinator for Christian Brothers Investment Services, which manages $3.5 billion for
Catholic institutions.
Christian Brothers, a socially responsible investing firm, persuaded Gillette to elect its board
of directors annually, a system shareholders think makes boards more accountable. The firm also
uses its position as a shareholder to lobby companies on environmental and human rights issues.
Tanner said the firm tends to lobby companies with household names or brands, even if it's their
suppliers that are the problem.
"In some of the rationale, which we try to talk to the company about, is an issue called
'reputational risk,'" Tanner said.
Campaigns across the country
When it comes to temporary labor, most activists have focused on the behavior of staffing agencies,
demanding they adopt codes of conduct, said Francoise Carre, research director at UMass-Boston's
Center for Social Policy. Few groups have attempted to climb the "chain of business contracts,"
like the local coalition is doing, she said.
Just this month, however, Taco Bell agreed to pay an extra penny a pound for Florida tomatoes,
ending a three-year boycott by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
Taco Bell buys 10 million pounds of tomatoes a year from various suppliers, who employ the
temporary workers. Though Taco Bell is essentially a customer, its parent company, Yum! Brands,
persuaded suppliers to pass the extra penny per pound, or $100,000 a year, to the workers. Yum
also agreed to set up a process for the company and coalition to jointly investigate workers'
complaints about wages and treatment.
"Targeting a well-known, everyday name usually helps," Carre said. "It gets media attention.
Everyone knows Taco Bell, whereas few people know the name of tomato growers."
The household-name strategy has even worked when lobbying staffing agencies, Carre said. Manpower
Inc. was targeted in the 1990s because it was the most well-known temp supplier, even if it was
not known to treat temp workers badly, she said.
Considering a recent ruling, Suffolk University law professor Marc Greenbaum said the court of
public opinion might be the only way to go. The National Labor Relations Board in November
reversed its stance on temps' ability to join union negotiations, saying they cannot bargain for
benefits alongside permanent employees. The recent NLRB opinion is a complete reversal of a 2000
ruling that treated temps and permanent employees as equals.
Contract workers have been successful in court only under extreme circumstances. For instance,
long-term temporary employees of Microsoft won pension benefits only because the Internal Revenue
Service, seeking payroll taxes, had previously said that Microsoft misclassified the workers. After
paying $97 million in damages, Microsoft now hires its temps through agencies.
Temp economy
Temps, whether they work for years or weeks, are hired directly or indirectly, have professional
skills or do manual labor, often are referred to as "contingent" labor.
Greenbaum, who specializes in labor law, said he doesn't recall using the term much 10 years ago.
That started to change as employers faced bigger judgments for employment discrimination, new
types of legal claims, for instance for emotional distress, and rising insurance costs.
Incentives to keep the number of permanent employees to a minimum are growing. "Each new employee
is a potential lawsuit and overhead," Greenbaum said.
The population of temp workers has not grown significantly, according to the most recent government
survey in 2001. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that under the broadest definition, such workers
represent 4 percent of the work force, or 5.4 million people. That definition includes independent
contractors and construction workers, as well as temps hired directly and through staffing
agencies.
Temps hired through staffing agencies are most likely to be under age 35, female and black or
Hispanic. Their median weekly wage of $396 was the lowest of any group.
Carre said although the overall number of temps hasn't grown much, there has been a major shift
from clerical work to manual labor -- distribution and light assembly.
Steve Quimby, research director for the Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board, said he has
seen that trend locally. Celestica, an electronics manufacturer with operations in Salem, N.H.,
has made all of its initial hires through the national staffing firm Adecco.
"A lot of the manufacturing companies are doing this now," Quimby said.
Although work for thousands of displaced Lucent workers is starting to pick up, most of it is on
short-term assignments. Celestica also sets up temporary-to-permanent opportunities, when temps
are hired for a set amount of time, typically four months, before they can be hired permanently,
Quimby said. The competition for these jobs is heavy, he added.
For some companies, hiring temps is a way to deal with the uncertainties of business. For others,
the temporary assignment serves as a probation period.
"It basically depends on the individual companies' strategy," Quimby said.
Dependence on temps isn't harmful to the economy until it creates a dead-end for workers,
Carre said.
"What happens if you don't have health insurance for 10 years? Who pays?"
Merrimack Valley Project wants Gillette to establish a seniority list from which temps would be
hired for permanent positions. The wait may be long, however, if a particular industry's strongest
demand is for temps.
That is the case for one of Gillette's distribution contractors, Sonoco, a South Carolina company
that fulfills orders for every major consumer products maker.
Sonoco's Devens plant is using 700 temps and 400 permanent workers, but the number of temps may
shrink to zero if market conditions so dictate, Vice President of Investor Relations Allan Cecil
said.
Sonoco sits at the end of a chain of command that begins in the stores, which are loath to stock
any more inventory than they need. Retailers' demands change with the season, their own promotions,
or even competitors' promotions. Sonoco and its customers must respond on short notice, and using
some short-term labor is the only way to do that, Cecil said.
"The model is not peculiar to Devens," Cecil said. "We employ that model worldwide to ensure our
customers and Sonoco can remain competitive."
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