Philippe Boucher

Born in France I have been living in the US, on Bainbridge Island (WA), since November 1998.

I have been an international tobacco control advocate for many years, in France and in the US.

From December 5, 2011 to July 5th 2016 I worked as an app reviewer for a Microsoft's contractor, Lionbridge Technologies. I organized the creation of a small independent union, Temporary Workers of America, a rarity in the high tech industry. On October 2014 I self-published The Other Microsoft that tells this story and pushes for paid leaves for 'temporary' workers. I published a French version, L'autre moitié de Microsoft in the beginning of March 2015. On March 26 2015 Microsoft announced they would require their suppliers to provide at least 15 days of paid leave to their employees. A little more than one year later, Microsoft and Lionbridge closed down our lab in Bellevue, sending the work to labs in Poland and China and getting rid of the union that had claimed that Microsoft was a joint employer. The union filed charges with NLRB against both companies for joint employment, bargaining in bad faith, runaway shop.

The runaway shop theory applies to companies moving jobs from a unionized to a non unionized plant. This NLRB investigation is still pending.

I am looking for another full time position while tutoring students wanting to improve their French. I published 'My little book of French songs' via blurb.com but it is still a work in progress and not yet available on Amazon.

More details by going to the paid time off matters blog and the La chanson du jour-French songs 101 blog.