Drivers for a shuttle company based in San Francisco claim that a recent failed effort to unionize is the result of aggressive company tactics explicitly intended to discourage union support. The drivers brought their claim against Bauer Intelligent Transportation to the National Labor Relations Board, which is holding a hearing on the matter set for the first of February.
Of the 79 employees who participated in the vote to unionize, reports the San Francisco Examiner, 41 were opposed and 25 were in favor.
The paper quotes the complaint filed with the NLRB, and highlights two incidents specifically — one of which being an alleged assault by “vocal anti-union [Bauer’s] employee and company supporter” on a pro-union employee, and the second being the firing of prominent advocate for unionization.
“Word of the suspension and termination of Flugence, recognized as a vocal union supporter," reads the complaint, "spread quickly among the bargaining unit employees.”
Bauer, which serves companies such as Electronic Arts and Cisco, did not respond to multiple requests for comment by the paper. The goal of the February 1 hearing is to allow company officials and employees an opportunity to come to some form of agreement.
The failure by Bauer's drivers to join Teamsters Local 665 follows a successful union drive by employees of Loop Transportation — the company that shuttles Facebook employees up and down the peninsula — in February of last year.
