The delivery services, which Ars tested in 2013, is now run by Adecco, a human resources and temporary worker company. According to Local Union 853, Google Express workers are only limited to two-year contracts, regardless of their job performance.
"With the conditions that these people have, they have nothing to lose," Rome Aloise, Local 853’s principal officer, told Ars.
He said that a unionized warehouse worker could expect wages of around $25 to $30, presumably higher than what Google is paying its Express workers at present.
Laszlo Bock, a senior vice president at Google, told local public radio earlier this month that the company respects its workers’ right to organize.
"Folks have a legal right to organize without fear of retaliation," Bock said in the interview. "And that’s a critical and important thing and we respect that. I mean, there would not and will not be retaliation."
Google declined Ars’ request for further comment, with Meghan Casserly, a spokeswoman, referring questions about the length of the contracts to Adecco, which did not immediately respond.
The move to unionize comes at a time when there is increased legal scrutiny over the use of contract labor in Silicon Valley.
This union, which also represents Facebook’s contracted bus drivers that shuttle employees around the San Francisco Bay Area, reached an agreement with for higher pay, among other benefits in February 2015.
Aloise told Ars that Local 853 was set to announce a similar agreement on Saturday with bus drivers working for Apple, Genentech, Yahoo, Zynga, eBay, Paypal, and Evernote.
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