Toni Dimaano Tech 10.11.2022 06:Oct AM EDT

Waymo's Cafeteria Workers are Forming a Union

Workers at Waymo's cafeteria make their last push at forming a union in Silicon Valley in response to the driving company's lack of benefits and high cost of living in the area.

Food service employees at the autonomous driving company follow the 4,000 Google workers, making them the latest group to organize from a prominent company, Engadget reports.

The Cafeteria Employees At Waymo's Are No Longer Silent

Cafeteria workers at Waymo, a driving company that used to be under Google before it was acquired by Alphabet, has organized against their employers.

Retaliating from their contractor Sodexo, workers at the company's cafeteria finally unionized to focus on the problem of the high cost of living in the Bay Area.

Sodexo is a contracts service that mediates between Google and other companies, including Waymo.

"We want a voice at the table to have a part in saying how things should work," Fernand Martir, a single mother who works in the kitchen for the company, told NBC News.

Martir, who also works as a barista at the company, is one of the workers who are underprivileged, living in mobile homes and struggling to cover her family's expenses.

Engadget writes that the food service workers only got paid a measly amount of $24 an hour, which is not enough to sustain an adequate living in the city.

The average living wage in the Silicon Valley area is $27.74 for a single adult, and $52.74 for a single adult with a child.

The workers also cited that the rents are immensely high, and that the insufficient pay for their labor could not cover their extremely expensive health plans.

"We're all motivated, and we all like to work. We've just got to push our family through," said Cristalyn Barragan, another worker at the facility, when interviewed.

Fair Treatment Is Being Called Upon By The Union

In addition to that, the unionized workers at Waymo also demand that they receive better treatment and benefits from Alphabet, which they do not enjoy, unlike full-time employees.

The organizers of the unionization efforts at Waymo said that they have already gathered signatures in support of their efforts, but Sodexo did not say if they will recognize the union.

However, The West Observer writes that Sodexo respects the rights of its employees to unionize when asked about the topic.

Sodexo also claims that they are confident that the company and the worker's union will reach an agreement on the issue as they are already in conversations on which path to take forward.

Meanwhile, should it be proven that Sodexo rejects the unionization efforts of the cafeteria workers at Waymo, they could file for an NLRB election to join in with other Alphabet workers.

These food service workers are part of Silicon Valley's long list of support and supplement employees that work at tech companies, The West Observer reports.

In recent years, unionization efforts have been more intensive and extensive as problems have coursed through the tech industry, which profits from the fruits of their labor.

During the pandemic, more than 4,000 workers at Google have joined unions, 2,300 of whom are cafeteria workers at the headquarters and satellite offices in the Bay Area.

Similarly, contract service workers have also unionized companies like Facebook, Apple, and Yahoo, showing a growing activist base within the tech industry.