Google Express workers join Teamsters

Google Express workers join Teamsters
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Google-Express-workers-join-...
By Wendy Lee
August 21, 2015

Photo: Nick And Laura Allen, Associated Press

This undated photo provided by Google shows a Google Shopping express van. Internet search leader Google is taking another step beyond information retrieval into grocery delivery. The new service, called Google Shopping Express, will initially provide same-day delivery of food and other products bought online by a small group of consumers in San Francisco and suburbs located south of the city. (AP Photo/Google)
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This undated photo provided by Google shows a Google Shopping express van. Internet search leader Google is taking another step beyond information retrieval into grocery delivery. The new service, called Google Shopping Express, will initially provide same-day delivery of food and other products bought online by a small group of consumers in San Francisco and suburbs located south of the city. (AP Photo/Google)
About 150 Google Express workers in Palo Alto will join the Teamsters, the union announced Friday. That is, if they keep their jobs.

The warehouse and shipping workers, employed by vendor Adecco, help operate Google’s online shopping delivery service. The group had 77 members voting in favor of joining the union, with 43 voting against it.

Workers sought union representation after concerns about poor working conditions, including damaged equipment, failing electrical systems and supervisors that follow workers into the bathrooms to make sure breaks aren’t too long, the Teamsters said. Google had no comment on the union vote.

The vote comes after news Thursday that Google plans to close its San Francisco and Palo Alto Google Express delivery hubs, as part of an overall strategy shift. In the past, when Bay Area residents ordered products through Google Express online, Google Express workers at stores would pick up the items ordered off shelves and drop packages at a delivery hub in Palo Alto or San Francisco. Then, couriers delivered those items to Bay Area customers.

Closing the Palo Alto and San Francisco locations could shorten delivery times from the store to the customers’ homes, said Tim Bajarin with advisory services firm Creative Strategies.

“Google is a big company who is looking at the bottom line as well as the quality of the service,” Bajarin said. “If it makes more sense to take out the distribution center in order to be more responsive to the customer, in that case, that is a better business decision.”

Bajarin said he does not believe Google’s change in strategy is related to the union vote.

Gabriel Cardenas, 26, said he hopes the union will push for higher wages and better benefits for Google Express workers. Cardenas, a shift coordinator, makes $17.50 an hour.

“The cost of living in the Bay Area is not meant for a middle working class,” Cardenas said.

The workers who organized under the Teamsters are at the Palo Alto hub.

Adecco did not respond to questions regarding what will happen to workers after the Palo Alto hub closes. The company said it will review the voting results.

“We believe that our associates are better off directly dealing with us as their employer rather than involving a union. However, we are supportive of any direction freely chosen by our associates,” Adecco spokeswoman Vannessa Almeida Adamo said in an e-mail.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee