Union Power Is Putting Pressure on Silicon Valley’s Tech Giants
“If you want to get people to buy your product, you don’t want them to feel that buying your product is contributing to the evils of the world,” says Silicon Valley Rising co-founder Derecka Mehrens, who directs Working Partnerships USA, a California nonprofit that advocates for workers. Tech companies have been image-conscious and closely watched of late, she says, and the coalition is “being opportunistic.”
The first such recent effort, in 2014, unionized 87 Facebook Inc. shuttle drivers employed by contractor Loop Transportation Inc. “We won by beating up Facebook, not beating up Loop,” says California Teamster leader Rome Aloise. Initially, Loop resisted recognizing the union, citing Facebook’s opposition, according to Aloise. So the Teamsters forced a vote by the drivers that was supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (the union won); union activists drew media attention to stories of Facebook shuttle drivers sleeping in their cars between grueling split shifts. “We got press in Japan and Germany and all over the world by saying Facebook,” Aloise says. “Nobody would’ve given a #### if I was saying Loop.”
Eventually, Facebook says, it OK’d proposed terms of the contract, which hiked drivers’ average pay by half, to $27.50 an hour, and for the first time provided fully paid family health care. Facebook also agreed to cover Loop’s added costs. Loop signed the contract. It didn’t respond to requests for comment, but Facebook denies discouraging unionization. “Our vendor workers are valued members of our community,” Facebook said in a statement. A spokeswoman says collective bargaining is up to contractors and their employees, but notes that since 2015, Facebook has required contractors to provide anyone doing “a substantial amount of work” for the company an hourly wage of at least $15 and three weeks of paid time off.
“If you want to get people to buy your product, you don’t want them to feel that buying your product is contributing to the evils of the world,” says Silicon Valley Rising co-founder Derecka Mehrens, who directs Working Partnerships USA, a California nonprofit that advocates for workers. Tech companies have been image-conscious and closely watched of late, she says, and the coalition is “being opportunistic.”
The first such recent effort, in 2014, unionized 87 Facebook Inc. shuttle drivers employed by contractor Loop Transportation Inc. “We won by beating up Facebook, not beating up Loop,” says California Teamster leader Rome Aloise. Initially, Loop resisted recognizing the union, citing Facebook’s opposition, according to Aloise. So the Teamsters forced a vote by the drivers that was supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (the union won); union activists drew media attention to stories of Facebook shuttle drivers sleeping in their cars between grueling split shifts. “We got press in Japan and Germany and all over the world by saying Facebook,” Aloise says. “Nobody would’ve given a #### if I was saying Loop.”
Eventually, Facebook says, it OK’d proposed terms of the contract, which hiked drivers’ average pay by half, to $27.50 an hour, and for the first time provided fully paid family health care. Facebook also agreed to cover Loop’s added costs. Loop signed the contract. It didn’t respond to requests for comment, but Facebook denies discouraging unionization. “Our vendor workers are valued members of our community,” Facebook said in a statement. A spokeswoman says collective bargaining is up to contractors and their employees, but notes that since 2015, Facebook has required contractors to provide anyone doing “a substantial amount of work” for the company an hourly wage of at least $15 and three weeks of paid time off.
