Mikey Campbell
After gaining representation by the Teamsters Union, a group of shuttle bus drivers serving Apple and other high technology companies in Silicon Valley on Saturday voted unanimously to adopt a three-year contract promising better pay and working conditions.
Today's non-binding contract looks to garner higher wages and benefits for drivers working at Compass Transportation, a shuttle service contracted by Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo and Zynga. According to The Wall Street Journal, the next step is for Compass to submit the contract, terms of which were negotiated by Teamsters Local 853 over a period of five months, to those companies for approval.
For its part, Apple said it is working with multiple contractors to offer drivers better working conditions, which in many cases comes down to higher wages.
"The pay increases are so significant to these people," said Rome Aloise, Teamsters International vice president and Local 853 principal officer. "They're life-changing."
The proposed plan is based in part on agreements reached by Facebook contractor Loop Transportation, which raised pay and overtime from an estimated $18 to $20 an hour to as much as $27.50 per hour. That deal also included extra benefits for overtime work and compensation for drivers running split shifts.
Silicon Valley shuttle drivers are fighting to bring parity to a wage gap between contract workers and the high-income tech employees they serve. According to recent estimates, skill positions at affluent tech companies bring in median yearly incomes of about $119,000, while non-skill jobs like those held by shuttle drivers come in at around $27,000.
Compass drivers elected to unionize under the Teamsters in February.
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51 Comments
Not to be insensitive but the shuttle drivers and their unions should not expect their wages to be anywhere near that of a tech. executive. There should be no comparison. Getting a degree or creating a startup is completely different from applying to be a shuttle driver. I'm not knocking what shuttle drivers do but let's be realistic.
[quote name="n2macs" url="/t/187452/tech-shuttle-drivers-approve-teamsters-contract-apple-working-with-contractors-to-raise-pay#post_2755668"]Not to be insensitive but the shuttle drivers and their unions should not expect their wages to be anywhere near that of a tech. executive. There should be no comparison. Getting a degree or creating a startup is completely different from applying to be a shuttle driver. I'm not knocking what shuttle drivers do but let's be realistic.[/quote] What's wrong with a livable wage? $27,000 is a surviving wage.
Not to be insensitive but the shuttle drivers and their unions should not expect their wages to be anywhere near that of a tech. executive. There should be no comparison. Getting a degree or creating a startup is completely different from applying to be a shuttle driver. I'm not knocking what shuttle drivers do but let's be realistic.
Working is working. Good people should be allowed to be happy and well paid. It's an expensive place to live. Just don't impose rules that make it difficult to properly deal with the incompetent.
Neat.
[quote name="ttollerton" url="/t/187452/tech-shuttle-drivers-approve-teamsters-contract-apple-working-with-contractors-to-raise-pay#post_2755708"]Skilled vs unskilled. It's not an insult. It's a description of the type of labor being performed. The skill to develop new ideas and turn it into useful software is much more challenging and hard to come by than the skill to drive a bus. If you want a lifestyle better than that which is afforded by driving a bus, then use bus driving as a stepping stone to something that requires a little more unique skill. Don't consider it a career. This "deserves to be paid" nonsense is a bunch of bull. Focusing on figuring out better ways to contribute more or create more value is far more effective at encouraging employers to increase compensation and benefits than a constant fixation on how much more per hour one can squeeze out of a low-level position.[/quote] Who made you arbiter on what's skilled and non-skilled? The fact is that driving a bus is not easy, and not everyone can 'contribute more or create more value'.