USA Today reports contract shuttle bus drivers who work for Apple, eBay, Yahoo and other Silicon Valley companies have voted to unionize. Facebook shuttle drivers voted to join the union in November.
USA Today, via 9to5Mac:
A majority of the 120 full-time and part-time drivers who transport those companies’ employees have signed authorization cards with the union, said Rome Aloise, International vice president and secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 853.
The drivers are employed by South San Francisco-based Compass Transportation, which has contracts with Apple and the other firms to transport its workers to and from work.
Reverend Jesse Jackson recently met with Apple CEO Tim Cook, in an effort to get Cook to “world-class working conditions” for low-paid contractors. Jackson also participated in a protest over the same issues, which was held at the Apple Campus in Cupertino, CA.
While hourly rates for drivers range from $18 – $20, the drivers say the high cost of living in nearby areas force them to live in cheaper outlying areas, and the long commute doesn’t allow them to return home in between their split shifts in the morning and evening.
William Gould, a professor at Stanford Law School said: “These workers, as a practical matter, have to wait in certain areas to do their work (and) they are not compensated for that wait.”
