Apple has a research campus in Austin. If enough people left or when to another company (e.g. Google), I think they’d take notice.
Many years ago, a California database company (ASK who owned Ingres) was sold to Computer Associates in Boston. They were told at the transition meeting that announced the sale that the California offices would be closed and that 100% relocation would be paid to all engineering staff. When pressed about the domestic partners benefits and other features of the health plan, CompAss said that their policy would be used to cover the relocated employees (i.e. no coverage). 250 database engineers stood and left the meeting. They packed their desks and left the building. All had jobs at Oracle or Sybase by the next day. I think 5 people took the relocation deal. Ingres became Postgres, which is now open source.
During the entire “give benefits to gay employees and their partners” thing, Microsoft, Apple, and Google came out saying they were going to do this. Because it was good for business. 1M Moms organized a boycott of these companies that went nowhere.
I think if someone at Apple, Google, and Microsoft sat down with Perry and told him to fix this and he didn’t, things would get really ugly in the Texas business community. All they’d have left was oil as an industry. Big companies do give a shit. I worked for DEC back in the 80s during the AIDS epidemic. They were one of the first to write HR policies for employees and their partners dealing with HIV.
