The frustrating thing right now, when we think about fairness, is that the [essential] workers who were most vulnerable during the pandemic are also the most vulnerable as we leave the pandemic, SEIU-United Services Workers West President David Huerta said before a protest on Thursday outside the campus of Facebook’s parent company.
About 150 union organizers, workers, and supporters gathered outside Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META)‘s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, to ask the company to continue to protect service workers and support their right to organize. Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META), -0.11%, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, was one of the tech giants that promised to keep paying janitors, security guards, shuttle drivers, and other service workers even as they closed their campuses at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) is going through what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called “one of the worst downturns” in its history, and service workers are already losing their jobs. Stacy Murphy, a business representative for Teamsters Local 853, which represents many of the tech-shuttle drivers in the Bay Area, said that Meta laid off more than 40 bus drivers this year, half of them in the last month. Now, about 100 janitors at Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) could lose their jobs as soon as September, according to janitors who talked to MarketWatch and SEIU-USWW union reps.
Teresa Barrios has been a janitor at Meta for four years. She said Thursday outside Meta’s main campus that if she loses her job, she would have another janitorial job elsewhere, but that losing both jobs would have a “dramatic” effect on her finances because she needs both jobs to live and support her family.
According to her, most Janitors have to work two jobs, adding that if the company that hires her lets some of the janitors at Meta go, the ones who are still there will have to do more work.
Other tech companies, like Google parent Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ: GOOGL), +0.45% GOOGL, +0.52% and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), -0.23%, have not responded to questions about whether they are cutting back on on-campus services and service workers. Executives at both companies are said to have told their own employees that, because of the economy, they plan to cut costs and slow hiring.
Maria Noel Fernandez, the campaign director for Silicon Valley Rising, an alliance of labor groups and community leaders, said, “We’re kind of at this tipping point and a new phase in the pandemic,” where decisions are being made about what to do next.
According to her, now is the time for tech companies to show their support for the service workers and communities that have helped them grow.
Thursday’s protest at Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META)‘s headquarters included a call for a vendor, Canon Business Process Services, to talk with the Teamsters, who represent mailroom workers. In December, 52 mailroom workers at Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META)‘s Bay Area offices voted on whether or not to join a union. The vote ended in a tie, which isn’t enough for the union to be recognized. The Teamsters union is fighting that, saying that Canon is trying to break up unions. Next month, there will be a hearing with the National Labor Relations Board.
Christine Sedlacek, a spokeswoman for Canon, said, “We are very confident that we have always followed federal labor law.”
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