Google Express workers in the Bay Area are putting the wheels in motion to unionize. Labor organizers and the Teamsters Union are preparing to represent 140 low-wage warehouse workers employed by Adecco, a temp agency that provides delivery services for Google Express.
“The reports we have received from workers at Google Express paint a bleak picture,” International VP and Local 853 principal officer Rome Aloise said. “It is surprising that Google, a company that prides itself on the treatment of its workforce, would allow this behavior to continue at Adecco.”
The service, which was created in 2013 to compete with Amazon Prime, delivers items purchased online to customers in seven cities throughout the U.S. including San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Manhattan, New York.
Currently, the contract workers make $13-$17 an hour with no benefits.
“As subcontractors, we are treated as second-class citizens,” Gabriel Cardenas, a Google Express worker, said in a statement released by labor organizers. “We get a different type of badge and don’t receive some of the most basic types of compensation like benefits. The majority of us work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. I am standing with my co-workers and community because I believe change for this invisible workforce is possible.”
The Teamsters Union is the most recent group to join a growing movement in the area called Silicon Vally Rising, which was created to battle income inequality in the area.
Recently, Teamsters have started representing transport workers for Apple, Yahoo and Facebook, while an organization called Service Employees International Union has been fighting to convince Google to circumvent subcontractor companies by hiring their own security guards.
In March, Google raised wages for its shuttle drivers by 20%.
