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As media and fans line up outside the Flint Center in Cupertino, CA, a group of protesters are also lining up to tell the world that Apple, among other tech companies are not paying taxes or doing their part to ensure fair wages for workers in Silicon Valley.
Images posted by The Verge, who are on site at the event, show a group of people holding signs that read, “Apple dodges taxes, we pay the price.” Additionally, a graph on an eight-foot banner shows the average hourly income of landscape workers and security officers as compared to an estimate of how much money is made hourly by iPhone sales alone. The banner reads, “Uech’s Underclass: in the Shadow of the iPhone.”
The organization supporting the wage protest, TechCanDoBetter, promotes the idea that tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Google, are raking in billions of dollars in profit, but don’t pay workers an income that reflects that profit. According to the organization’s website, the tech industry “should do everything it can to support our community by practicing social and ecological responsibility. That means higher income, paying taxes, and good customer support (which Apple is already doing).
The TechCanDoBetter project comes from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which supports workers across all industries, including the hotel and restaurant industry, healthcare, and schools. The two-million member union includes janitors, security officers, nurses, bus drivers, and more.
In the years since I’ve been covering Apple media events, this is the first time I’ve seen protesters outside of one of them. It doesn’t mean protests haven’t taken place, it just means that they are getting a bit of recognition this time around.
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