Service workers at Silicon Valley tech giants fear that as the companies cut back, they could be among the first to lose their jobs. “The frustration at this time, as we think about equity, is that the [essential] workers who were most vulnerable during the pandemic are also now most vulnerable as we exit the pandemic,” SEIU-United Services Workers West President David Huerta said ahead of an action Thursday outside the campus of Facebook’s parent company.
The rally of about 150 union organizers, workers and supporters outside Meta Platforms Inc.’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., was meant to urge the company to continue to protect service workers and support workers’ right to organize. Meta
META,
-0.11%,
the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, was one of the tech giants that at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 promised to keep paying janitors, security guards, shuttle drivers and other service workers even as they closed their campuses. As Meta enters what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called “one of the worst downturns” in its history, service workers are already losing jobs. More than 40 bus drivers at Meta have been laid off this year, half in the past month, said Stacy Murphy, business representative for Teamsters Local 853, which represents many of the Bay Area’s tech-shuttle drivers. Now, about 100 Meta janitors may lose their jobs as soon as September, according to janitors who spoke with MarketWat …