Facebook shuttle drivers to Mark Zuckerberg: We want a union

[IDemo]

Source: USA Today

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Teamsters are organizing Facebook shuttle bus drivers after extensive coverage from USA TODAY brought to light tough working conditions.

The top Teamsters official for Northern California has sent a letter urging Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to "encourage" its contractor to allow the drivers to "bargain a fair contract."

"It is reminiscent of a time when noblemen were driven around in their coaches by their servants. Frankly, little has changed; except the noblemen are your employees, and the servants are the bus drivers who carry them back and forth each day," Teamsters official Rome Aloise wrote to Zuckerberg.

This is the second time the Teamsters have tried to organize the Facebook drivers, but the first time the union has gotten a majority of Facebook shuttle drivers to sign cards asking Local 853 to represent them.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/10/06/facebook-shuttle-bus-drivers-teamsters/16810311/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Bing it on!!!!!!

Way to go Teamsters. This tells us they,the drivers have finally had enough of Zuckerbergs Tea Billie ideas.

[Yavin4]

3. Duzy!

I see what you did there

[aggiesal]

6. I don't use Facebook, and I'm not a Zuckerberg fan, but ...

this is not Facebook's problem.

If you read the article, all the major tech companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, ...,
contract their bus service from outside bus companies. It's those companies that are
underpaying and forcing the bus drivers from getting 2nd jobs between morning and
evening shifts.

If I were Zuckerberg, why would I care? He's just going to find another bus line
that will offer the best service at a reasonable price. He can of course hire his
own bus drivers and allow them to unionize, but I doubt he will.

Now if all the bus line contractors become union shops, then all the tech companies
will have to hire buses that use union drivers.

A neighbor of mine, owns the Sundance Buses in San Diego. He has the contract to
bus the San Diego Chargers and the NFL visiting teams. He told me that they charge
their clients for having their drivers wait for their return home.

For example, their drivers would pick up the visiting team at their hotel, bus them to the game,
sit and wait until the game completed and then bus them to the airport. I've seen up to 4 buses
per team, with all the front office, staff, players, and home town media.

Another example, they would drive people from San Diego to Pasadena for the Rose parade.
To get to Pasadena by 8 am, the drivers would pick up the bus around 3 am. Drive to the
pickup location, then drive to Pasadena by 5am to arrive at 7am, in time for the clients
to walk to their seats by 8am start. Then the drivers wait for parade to finish at 10am.,
fight the traffic home, and get back to San Diego drop off location around 2 pm., Then
drive the bus back to the storage yard. Drivers get paid from 3am until about 2:30 - 3 pm.
Almost 12 hours. I don't know their driver policy, so I don't know if they get paid double
time for the whole trip, but they do get paid 1.5 for hours after 8, and double time after
12 hours, by law.

[mulsh]

2. Years of management/union experience in the bay area tells me techie types,

especially progressive, highly educated ones loathe unions in their companies. It seems these people resent "someone telling them what to do" as one guy CEOsplained to me. Of course they have no problem sending out orders and dictating conditions. It just isn't a two way street.

I wish the drivers and the Teamsters success.

I also look forward to a whole slew of amusing stories about Facebook's union busting tactics.

[KamaAina]

4. I can hardly wait for a tech bus strike!

Everyone in SF would be out there bringing food to the strikers!

[Xithras]

5. None of them actually work for Facebook.

Facebook, like most tech companies, simply outsources its bus services to a third party subcontractor. These drivers actually work for a company called Loop, which also carries workers for Google and some other companies.

Zuck probably doesn't give much thought to these drivers, because they don't work for him. The drivers are reaching out to him because unionization will drive up operational costs. If Loop passes these costs on, there's a very real chance that Facebook could just cut their contract and hire another company...throwing these drivers out of work. This is a lucrative market for bus companies in the Bay Area, and they're constantly fighting and undercutting each other for these contracts.

The Teamsters are reaching out to Suckerberg because they want Facebook to commit to sticking with Loop even if Loop raises its contract price. Considering how fickle tech companies are already being about their contracts, it would be a huge about-face for Facebook to commit to a single company.