In late 2013, activists in San Francisco began protesting against “Google buses” – large commuter shuttle buses that ferry high tech workers from all over the Bay Area to Silicon Valley under contract with companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook. The protests quickly spread to other cities including Oakland and Seattle. And what it brought to the forefront is starting a monumental impact across the Silicon Valley tech economy.
As working people get squeezed out of the Bay Area due to ever-rising rents and housing prices, these buses were seen as symbols of income inequality. Protesters rightly shouted that the high tech boom was a bust for some. Although most conceded it is better to have people in buses than cars, the shuttle buses were using public bus stops, competing with regular MUNI service for infrastructure that the public paid for. In some cases, the protests brought public and private transit to a halt.
In response, early last year the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) passed a pilot program for the commuter shuttle buses. Under this program, over a dozen companies were permitted to use MTA bus stops, paying $1 for each stop. While the program helped quiet down some of the protests, the very real issues of income inequality remained.
Nowhere is this more evident than with the drivers of the shuttle buses themselves. Mostly workers of color, they rise early in the morning to pick up tech workers and take them to work. After the morning commute, they wait around unpaid until the evening commute, working split shifts. Since the high cost of housing has pushed these drivers out to cities such as Tracy, Manteca, Pittsburg, and elsewhere, they cannot get home between shifts. Add to that no vacation, unaffordable health care, no retirement, and low wages in relation to the people who ride the buses and you get a picture of the challenges they face. All this is happening against a backdrop of companies that have made billions of dollars and become household names. If that isn’t income inequality, I don’t know what is.
One way to combat income inequality is to organize a union, and that’s exactly what these drivers are doing. Last November, 87 drivers for Facebook’s contractor, Loop Transportation, organized with Teamsters Local 853. Last month, they overwhelmingly voted to approve their first union contract that brings them an average increase of $9 to their hourly wage, fully paid family health care, and 5 weeks paid vacation, sick pay, a pension, and additional pay for working split shifts. The following weekend, over 140 drivers for Compass Transportation, which has contracts with Apple, Yahoo, eBay, and others, followed suit by voting to join the Teamsters. Now they have begun negotiations, and are setting standards for drivers from dozens more shuttle companies who have begun organizing. Change is coming to this industry.
In recognition of this historic moment, and the momentum carrying it forward, Monday San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener introduced a resolution calling on the MTA to amend its commuter shuttle pilot program to ask the bus companies to demonstrate “labor harmony” as a criterion for their permits. Supervisor Wiener’s intentions are two-fold: first, it is a recognition that the high tech industry is finally bringing its contract workers into the fold of fair pay for a day’s work. Second, he wants to protect the hundreds of thousands of riders who depend on daily MUNI bus service from the sort of protests that have rocked the system in the past. In this case, the very real prospect of labor disputes if an employer stands in the way of the workers’ democratic right to have a union. Those are not the values of San Francisco. Not surprisingly, the resolution passed from the Land Use Committee unanimously and now goes to the full Board of Supervisors.
Supervisor Wiener joins a growing movement in the Bay Area calling for the tech industry to share the prosperity. Last month, a broad coalition of community, labor, and faith activists launched Silicon Valley Rising to make a tech economy that works for everyone. That means good jobs, affordable housing, and a strong public transit system. In addition to the Teamster victories after the kickoff, last week security officers at Apple were buoyed by the announcement that Apple was going to dump its security contractor and bring officers in as full-time employees after a concerted campaign by the Service Employees International Union – United Service Workers West. Silicon Valley is rising indeed!
Doug Bloch is Political Director for the Teamsters Joint Council 7
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