It\u2019s happening. \u00a0The shuttle drivers at Loop Transportation, the shuttle bus company used by Facebook, have voted to unionize under the auspices of the Teamsters (historically appropriate, actually) and will now bargain collectively. \u00a0This is being trumpeted as a watershed moment in Silicon Valley – although most people seem to be regarding it as the invasion of old-school backward-thinking legacy business infecting the land of disruption and innovation.<\/p>\n
Horseshit<\/em>.<\/p>\n The union is the natural response to what is blithely called \u201cthe 1099 economy.\u201d When everyone below director level is a contractor – especially a completely independent contractor – companies are free from the burden of treating their employees like, well, employees. \u00a0You can just \u201csever your relationship\u201d if you want to get rid of them. \u00a0Benefits and health care are their own business, not yours. \u00a0 The technology industry has managed to create a world where the smartphone-enabled equivalent of picking up guys from the Home Depot parking lot is a preferred business model for the likes of Handy or Taskrabbit or half a dozen \u201ctransportation network companies\u201d.<\/p>\n This is exactly what unions formed to prevent. \u00a0You can\u2019t just randomly donk off employees for the sake of saving money, or because you don\u2019t want to be responsible for their actions, or say \u2018this is the job and you have six hours of unpaid downtime in between, take it or leave it.\u201d \u00a0The role of the union is to shift the balance of power so the regular workers have a say. \u00a0And in that mythical 1950s Pleasantville that the Republicans constantly talk about wanting us to return to? \u00a0Unions represented one out of three American workers.<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be a useful reality check. \u00a0Nothing like a picket line and a giant inflatable rat to make people realize that oops, there are human beings on the other side of the screen, and they\u2019re more than just the $40,000-a-year Morlocks that turn the gears so your cloud-cuckoo-land can carry on. \u00a0These are the real human beings in Northern California who were here long before you dropped out of Stanford and they count just as much, because your Ayn Rand paradise here in Galt\u2019s Gulch on Market will go to shit once there\u2019s nobody actually driving the shuttles or catering the burrito bar or cleaning up the gym or restocking the snack harbor.\u00a0<\/p>\n And for me, it\u2019s a little bit of the East Coast to cheer me up. The people\u2019s flag is deepest red, motherfuckers. \u00a0(Not Cardinal red. \u00a0Fuck those guys.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s happening. \u00a0The shuttle drivers at Loop Transportation, the shuttle bus company used by Facebook, have voted to unionize under the auspices of the Teamsters (historically appropriate, actually) and will now bargain collectively. \u00a0This is being trumpeted as a watershed moment in Silicon Valley – although most people seem to be regarding it as the … <\/p>\n