Facebook Shuttle Drivers Seek Union Over Working Conditions, Wages
MENLO PARK (CBS SF) -- Saying working conditions and wages need to be improved, bus drivers who shuttle Facebook employees to and from work are beginning the process of organizing a union.
Officials with Teamsters Union Local 853 have sent a letter (.pdf) to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The letter asks Zuckerberg to urge Loop Transportation, which employs the drivers, to recognize a union and bargain with them.
"While your employees earn extraordinary wages and are able to live and enjoy life in some of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the Bay Area, these drivers can't afford to support a family, send their children to school, or, least of all, afford to even dream of buying a house anywhere near where they work," Teamsters official Rome Aloise wrote in the letter.
"This is reminiscent of a time when noblemen were driven around in 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 every day," Aloise went on to say.
According to the New York Times, many of the drivers earn about $18 to $20 an hour. Drivers also work a split-shift schedule that starts before dawn and does not end until after 9 p.m., prompting many drivers to nap in their cars.
Loop Transportation told the Times that the drivers have medical and dental insurance, along with a lounge for the drivers to relax in between shifts.
Aloise told the newspaper that they hope to unionize drivers working for other Silicon Valley companies, including Apple and Google.
