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Teamsters Seek To Unionize More Tech Shuttle Bus Drivers In Silicon Valley
An anonymous reader writes with news about the effort to unionize shuttle drivers in Silicon Valley. "Shuttle bus drivers for five prominent tech companies will decide whether to unionize on Friday in a vote that has the potential to dramatically expand organized labor's territory in Silicon Valley and embolden others in the tech industry's burgeoning class of service workers to demand better working conditions. Drivers who ferry Yahoo, Apple, Genentech, eBay and Zynga workers -- all employed by contractor Compass Transportation -- will decide whether to join the Teamsters union in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. Union leaders say they want to bring the drivers into the fold so they can negotiate better pay and benefits -- as well as relief from a split shift that has the drivers working morning and evening shifts with no pay in between. A contract the Teamsters struck over the weekend for Facebook's shuttle bus drivers, who work for Loop Transportation, offers a glimpse of what may be possible: paid sick and vacation time, full health care coverage and wages of up to $27.50 an hour."
Anybody else's Slashdot break today?
I've gone to this top-menu-bar thing, with no left gap at all, with no comment button at all (only Reply To This, sorry!) without warning.
Also, the content is trapped in the left-hand half of the page and won't stretch across.
Not only that, by on the same screen where I have "Ads Disabled" checked, I see an ad.
Slashdot, seriously, without a comment button, I'm gone for good this time.
Mod parent up. On the discussion of safety regarding dock workers, you are correct in that they have actually gone so far that they make it less safe. The unions are so terrified of any kind of automation removing jobs that they refuse tech advancements that take the workers off the dock and put them in offices operating remotely, which takes them out of harm's way. It is very common in Europe but doesn't happen in the US.
People said two decades ago that we would all have 30 hour work weeks from home in paperless offices thanks to technology. See how that turned out.
Unfortunately, the main reason this hasn't happened is because it's easier, more efficient, and cheaper* to train one person and have
them work 60 hours a week than it is to train 2 people and have them each work 30 hours a week.
*It's cheaper even IF companies were required to pay overtime (which many don't). Time and a half is cheaper than the added
expense of medical, additional training, and Brooks's law.
Look at Sweden for example. What you're stating simply isn't true. In 2013, 15.9% of the population was born outside of Sweden.
Anyone in the EU is free to settle in any other EU contry (Sweden is a EU country, just as Romania).
Anyone from outside the EU is free to work in Sweden provided that they can show an offer of employment with a monthly salary of at least 13000 sek
(about 1560 usd), and after four years they can apply for permanent residency.
The diffrence is a welfare state and unions.