Teamsters Win Vote to Unionize More Tech Shuttle Bus Drivers in Silicon Valley
Since Union wins are few and far between in this century, this is indeed big news.
Shuttle bus drivers for five major tech companies voted to unionize Friday, an outcome that could inspire more low-paid service workers in booming Silicon Valley to band together for better pay and benefits.
Drivers for workers at Yahoo, Apple, Genentech, eBay and Zynga voted 104 to 38 to join the Teamsters union in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. The shuttle bus drivers, who are employed by Compass Transportation, followed the lead of Facebook’s team, which voted to join the union in November and approved a contract last week. The Teamsters plan to use that agreement — which provides for higher wages, full health insurance and paid sick and vacation time — to set a standard for all the shuttle bus drivers who ferry high-tech workers from their homes in San Francisco, the East Bay and elsewhere to their offices in the valley.