Throughout the pandemic, tech’s white collar workers have been largely buffered from the worst economic impacts of the pandemic, with many easily transitioning to work from home. However, for hundreds of thousands of people who cook, clean, and protect tech campuses, working remotely isn’t possible.

When tech campuses began to close, our Silicon Valley Rising campaign called on the industry to recognize that the people doing these service jobs are also tech workers, and include them in pandemic responses. The industry leaders heeded our call, and have maintained pay and health care benefits for subcontracted workers — including over 14,000 unionized cafeteria workers, janitors, and security officers.

In September, Verizon broke ranks with the industry by refusing to pay the salary and benefits of over a hundred cafeteria workers. In response, we organized with labor partners to hold actions outside the campus and at the house of Verizon Media’s CEO. We also released a report detailing the devastating potential impacts if other tech companies were to abandon their commitments to their subcontracted workers. Our report picked up major media coverage and added to the public pressure for other companies to keep doing right by all of their workers.

In 2021, we will continue to collaborate with tech corporations to prioritize the stability and wellbeing of the industry’s service workers throughout the pandemic and beyond.