Satya Nadella invited to the White House as a "champion of change".

From the official Microsoft blog. The part about paid leave is at the end.

Lionbridge Technologies, Temporary Workers of America and the National Labor Relations Board

Since August 2013, Lionbridge Technologies has been charged by TWA and investigated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in four cases concerning violations of the employees rights to organize.

How trustworthy is Lionbridge?

CEO Rory Cowan brags about the fact that Lionbridge Technologies has been selected by Forbes magazine to be for the second consecutive year among its list of the 100  most trustworthy companies in America. He says that "For nearly two decades, we've provided our clients, employees, partners and shareholders with the highest level of transparency, integrity and quality." How does he reconcile this glowing statement with his refusal, after we gave to Lionbridge and Microsoft more than 3 years of excellent work, to provide us with any paid time off nor any pay increase? What level of trust does he think we have in him and this company? Haven't we been compelled to file a charge against Lionbridge for bargaining in bad faith because they refuse to tell us how much Microsoft is paying for our work?

Brad Smith on GeekWire Radio

On saturday April 11, Brad Smith was interviewed by Todd Bishop and John Cook on GeekWire Radio. We have selected below the 4 minute segment devoted to Microsoft's new requirement that it's suppliers provide at least 15 days of paid leave to their employees.

 LISTEN

GeekWire’s weekly radio show airs on KIRO Radio (97.3 FM) in the Seattle region, and reaches a worldwide audience via podcast.

Brad Smith's photo by GeekWire.

Comparing Paychecks with CEOs

Comparing paychecks with CEOs is the title of an article by Gretchen Morgenson in this sunday edition of the New York Times. It so happens that we asked what was Rory Cowan's (Lionbridge CEO) annual compensation in one of our 'request for information'. The answer provided was $1.522.275 (for the cash compensation). Reading this article published on March 24 in the Boston Business Journal it looks like Rory took home a bit more: $2.89 million. That's $1.36 million more than what we were told.

How much did you make from Lionbridge in 2014? I received a total of $40.810, for a net of $32.618.
If we estimate the maximum aggregated annual income for all 37 Tier 1 employees at the present rate it's less than Rory's annual compensation: $1.248.960 vs $1.522.275 or $2.89 million.
Let us remember that Rory's representatives at the bargaining table have (until now) refused any pay raise (there has never been a pay raise since the start of the project in December 2011) and have also rejected any type of paid leave. We are therefore curious to see how they'll respond to Microsoft's new requirement to provide at least 15 days of paid leave.