- Meta (previously Facebook) has let go more than 100 shuttle-bus employees, according to records.
- Meta claimed that it is changing its transportation services “to better match the needs” of its hybrid workforce.
- Silicon Valley service workers have had to leave their in-person jobs to make way for remote work.
As the social media giant, Meta is laying off bus drivers that shuttle Meta employees between the office and home. Cost cuttingAnd doubles downRemote work
Hallcon Corporation and WeDriveU — two transportation contractors used by the Facebook parent company — announced they will be cutting 63 and 97 jobs respectively by the end of November, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, letters filed with the California Department of Labor.
Meta’s shuttle-driving workforce was one-third laid off. According toTeamsters Local 853, which represents the affected drivers, is the union represented by the Teamsters.
Chris Rolletta (Vice President of Human Resources at WeDriveU) stated in a WARN Letter that the job losses are due to “our client’s decrease of transportation services,” but did no mention Meta. SiliconValley.com reported.
Insider was informed by a Meta spokesperson, that Meta has made adjustments to its on-site services, including transportation programs. This is in response to the hybrid workforce’s needs.
This latest development is an example of how Big Tech’s widespread adoption and use of remote work has resulted in layoffs among Silicon Valley’s workers who provide services to the public. In September, Nearly 100 janitorsMarketWatch reported that Meta’s California offices terminated its employees.
NOAH BERGER/AFP via Getty Images
All full-time Meta employees who have job responsibilities that can be done online as of June 2021 Can be appliedTo become a remote worker. Employees are expected to spend at most half of their time at the office.
The company’s top executives embrace remote work (including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg who spends most of his time at his desk). Compound in HawaiiThe lifestyle is however. Not accessible to many AmericansTeamsters Local 853 says that people “#needjobsIRL” because the majority of remote or hybrid positions are filled by college graduates.
Meta cafeteria workers and bus drivers protested the recent wave in layoffs. They argued that service workers in the tech industry deserve better job security, healthcare and fair wages after being “essential workers” for two years during a global pandemic.
“Over several years, tech has been prospering on the backs all of us,” Maria Noel Fernandez from Silicon Valley Rising campaign said at the protest. Almanac News.
Meta is being asked by Teamsters Local 853 to “rescind all its layoffs” and to mandate its employees to return to work. This includes the shuttle drivers as well as the janitors, cafeteria workers and security guards.
Meta is not like other Silicon Valley companies and has decided to refuse to require that employees return to work at the main campus. Although the company provided generous support to its contracted workforce during the pandemic,” the union stated in a Statement.
Do you work as a bus driver, janitor, security guard, or cafeteria worker for a Big Tech company. To share your story, email htowey@insider.com using a non-work address.
