Facebook Shuttle Bus Drivers Vote to Unionize

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A Facebook shuttle bus en route to the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times

In a rare win for labor in Silicon Valley, the shuttle bus drivers who ferry Facebook employees to and from work voted on Wednesday to unionize, 43 to 28.

The drivers, who are employees of Loop Transportation, a contractor for Facebook, voted to join Teamsters Local 853, with several of them saying their main concerns were inadequate pay and a stressful split shift schedule.

“The only way that Loop will listen to us is with a union and a collective voice,” said Demaurae Hooston, a driver. “I’m very relieved that we have that now.”

Many drivers complain that they often start work around 6 a.m. and do not finish until 9 p.m., 15 hours later. It is typical for them to work five hours in the morning, from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., then be off for six hours and return to work from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

They also complain that they live too far from Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., to go home and nap during their split shift. But Loop says it is committed to providing comfortable accommodations for drivers between shifts, whether at its bus yard or on the Facebook campus.

While many drivers earn $18 to $21 an hour, they assert that that amount is inadequate, considering how high rents and housing prices are in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.

“These companies need to step up and stop demanding the lowest bid contract,” Rome Aloise, secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 853, said in a statement. “Of all the industries in the world, the tech industry can afford to compensate those that help make them successful.”

Before Wednesday’s vote, Mr. Aloise said that if the Teamsters won at Loop and bargained a good contract, the union would then seek to unionize shuttle bus drivers at Google and other Silicon Valley companies. Loop is one of several bus companies that technology companies contract with to transport their employees.

In a statement released Wednesday night, Loop said it respected the election results. “Even though we don’t feel that our drivers’ interests are best served by union representation, our drivers have spoken, and we will now begin the negotiation process,” the company said.

It repeated what it had said repeatedly before the vote — that it was proud of its hourly wages, paid vacations and paid sick days, as well as fully paid medical benefits for its full-time drivers (though not their families.)

On Oct. 2, Mr. Aloise sent a colorful letter to Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to press Loop to agree to negotiate with the union on behalf of the shuttle bus drivers.

“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,” Mr. Aloise wrote.

He added: “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.”

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