SFO's laid off Hertz workers now calling for boycott
SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - Workers recently laid off by Hertz Car Rental's site near San Francisco International Airport are now calling for a boycott. The 156 people laid off, called "shuttlers", are the workers who move the vehicles in the lots.
Hertz released the following statement, “We made the difficult decision to transition the vehicle transporter work at SFO to an outside provider in order to remain competitive after the workforce turned down three reasonable contract settlements. We are working with these employees directly to find employment with the new service provider or within Hertz. It is our understanding that the majority of the workforce has been hired by the new service provider thus far.”
Hertz tells KTVU at last count of the 99 employees who applied 93 were called back and offers were extended. Seventy-six people responded and were hired, and around 10 people did not pass EDS background checks.
The workers are immigrants, mostly Chinese, Filipino, and some Latino.
They say they don't have much leverage, but they hope the public will show support.
One Daly City man tells me he's driven for Hertz 20 years. But in September, he received a 60-day layoff notice. He lost his job last Tuesday on Election Day.
"Scared, suddenly you lose one-third of your income," says Ming See. He also drives a taxi on the weekends and his wife has a seasonal job.
"I get angry. We didn't do anything wrong," says Teresa Ng, another laid off Hertz worker.
The workers tell KTVU most of the people who were laid off have limited English skills and work more than one job to make ends meet.
Earlier this month. the workers walked off their jobs and held a rally at San Francisco City Hall to protest the layoff.
They've received support from the Chinese Progressive Association, which helps immigrant workers.
The nonprofit, the Board of Supervisors and Teamsters Local 856 say they've reached out to Hertz, but have not been able to get company officials to come to the table to talk.
"We've called for a boycott of Hertz at this time. It's shameful for a company to treat American workers this way," says Lucia Lin with Chinese Progressive Association. .
The layoffs are permanent and future hiring decisions will be made exclusively by a vendor.
The Chinese Progressive Association says so far, the subcontractor has hired back 60 of the laid off workers.
"Sad, exactly feel sad. I just want Hertz, the management sit at the table and negotiate again. But they don't," says Ng.
The workers and their supporters plan to hold a protest and rally at SFO on November 29th as part of the National Day of Action
Hertz released the following fact sheet:
"Hertz made the decision to outsource approximately 156 transportation jobs to a vendor that specializes in transit services.
To date, 90% of the 100 applicants have been offered positions with this new vendor at the same pay they received at Hertz. Another portion may be applying for employment with the vendor, and we hope they all make the decision to apply.
All of these employees also had the option of applying for other positions within Hertz--now and in future. In fact, some already have been hired into new roles directly with us.
For those employees that have chosen not to apply with or respond to the vendor, Hertz has offered career counseling, unemployment filing, resume template writing, and other job transition support. We have now decided to extend this support through December to further assist any transporter with their transition, and will evaluate the possibility of extending these services, if they are needed and employees want them.
How Did the Situation Come to Be?
Hertz has been a part of this community for a long time and is proud to have had long and very positive working relationships with the labor unions that represent our employees, here and all over the State.
We have more than 30 union contracts throughout California, covering more than 1,500 of our employees. We have successfully renegotiated a large number of these contracts over the course of the last year.
Hertz bargained in good faith with Teamsters Local 665 for the past year. We reached agreement with Local 665 on terms for three new contracts, each of which was enthusiastically recommended by Teamster leaders to members, but each time rejected by employees. Teamsters Local 665 then notified Hertz that they severed their relationship with these employees after they rejected the third contract offer on August 11 of this year.
Hertz was then left with a workforce that had rejected three reasonable contract settlements and no union that had authority to negotiate for them. After review and analysis of the work performed by the transportation employees, it was decided that the work would be a better fit to be outsourced by a vendor that professionally performs this work.
Hertz employs 335 employees at SFO and 117 additional employees in the San Francisco Bay Area."