Via the New York Times comes the news Facebook’s bus contractor is being pressured by the Teamsters to allow the union to bargain for the bus driver’s behalf.
Top-flight tech companies in the Valley utilize the bus shuttle service to keep their employees out of the awful hell of Valley traffic, many other commuters enviously looking on. But Facebook and Google of course contract the driving work out, the drivers aren’t employees of the company, so they can look the other way—even all of their bright, enlightened employees on their way to work every day—as their shuttle driver is screwed with lousy pay and a completely unworkable schedule.
Facebook, Google and Apple are some of the wealthiest companies the world has ever seen, yet they ludicrously adhere to the principle of maximizing shareholder profits above all else. Literally hundreds of billions of dollars are lying around in cash yet they see no issue in their human being shuttle drivers being crushed liked medieval serfs.
The lousy pay of $20.00 an hour for a dangerous, highly responsible job is bad enough, but incredibly the bus contractor had this answer for driving service to cover Facebook’s workday: split the shift and make the driver have a 16 hour day. Where the driver can rest between the split, oh well, how it could play unholy havoc with any kind of family schedule, oh well.
Wrong freaking answer, Facebook and your bus contractor, it is a searing, massive disgrace that in the United States of America this hideous thinking and horrible insensitivity could be so calmly accepted and defended.
“We believe that we take really good care of our drivers,” Mr. Leonoudakis said. “They’re the heart of our company. Without them, we can’t provide service to our customers.”
So says the scumbag who exploits his workers who are trapped into a skill set and labor market they simply have to accept. This horrific dishonesty and cruelty really, really disturbs me, we’re a better country than this.
Are we a better country than this, Facebook? How about y’all around the bend at Google or Apple? Is that why you go to work every day, so drivers can be exploited into a living hell shuttling your employees around?
The workers at these companies know full well the cruelty of this when the facts are clear. Your corporate masters have deigned to be grossly indifferent corporatists, is that who you really want to work for? Surely there must be a respectful, careful way to let your corporate bosses know this awful 16 hour day for shuttle drivers cannot continue.
The “expensive” solution to all this is so simple: dump the split and add a part-time driver for the evening work. Relative to the wealth of the companies utilizing shuttles “expensive” is an obscene word, it wouldn’t come close to a rounding error to the profits of these companies to simply hire another driver, or to be charged for it by the vendor.
Nothing will happen unless the Teamsters organize those drivers, Facebook and Google could care less—believe me, if they cared they never would have allowed this obscenity to occur in the first place.
It’s disgusting and degrading and horribly sad, all of this cruelty so unnecessary. Very likely the same exploitation story exists in many high tech vendor scenarios, the officers at those companies rankly rationalize vendor humans are technically not employees, so what the hell, cruelty and exploitation is their lot!
Way to go, Facebook, America is so proud to see how cruelty is your casual handmaiden. Cue the excuses, lying and rationalizations, we’re waiting.