Elon Musk has apparently told the group of fired cleaning staff at the San Francisco Twitter Headquarters that robots will replace their jobs.
This Monday, there has been a grave abuse of workers’ rights under Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.
A group of cleaning staff that had been working at the Twitter HQ offices for a few years have recently been fired without severance pay. This comes after Olga Miranda, the president of the janitors’ and cleaners’ union, had been organizing a strike to take place on Monday to protest previous unfair and strict working conditions at the headquarters. Instead, they received notice that they had been fired, effective immediately with no severance pay.
Miranda claims this is because many of the cleaning staff at the Twitter HQ are members of a union.
Adrianna Villarreal, in communication with the BBC, had worked for Twitter for four years. Villarreal has also been fired, and now fears she will not be able to provide for her family during the festive period.
Villarreal is worried she will not be able to buy Christmas gifts for her family.
We are supposed to have Christmas presents for our children, a plate of food on our table and overnight we don’t have anything.
Adrianna Villarreal, BBC
Julio Alvarado was also a cleaner working for Twitter for 10 years. He says that before Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter in October, the environment was friendly and positive at work. Things have since changed.
“People worked without worries,” says Alvarado, “now we are afraid.”
Alvarado received threats from Musk’s security team, saying that his job would be terminated soon ‘anyway’ because robots would eventually replace the need for human cleaners.
Alvarado is concerned with paying his bills in the increased inflation post-pandemic, but also continuing to support his family that lives in Mexico.
He says he is currently struggling to find money to pay for his rent.
Similarly, Juana Laura Chavero Ramirez opened up about her diabetic condition. Without her job and any severance pay, Ramirez fears she will not be able to afford the medication that she relies on.
Since Monday, there have been recurring protests outside of the Twitter offices in San Francisco. Multiple public figures have come out in support of the fired Twitter staff, such as California state senator Scott Wiener saying they are being treated “like garbage”.
Scott Wiener says, “In the short term, I’d like to see him [Elon Musk] treat his janitors like human beings and get them back working – not just throw them out right before Christmas.”
Indeed, there are exceptionally few available cleaning vacancies in San Francisco during this festive period, as claimed by the protestors.
San Francisco’s city attorney, David Chiu, is also in charge of investigating this case. Chiu has said that this is not the first time he has encountered labor law disruptions concerning Elon Musk.
Elon Musk has had a long history of flouting labour laws. While I’m not surprised this happened, I feel for these workers. We will be looking into this further.
David Chiu, BBC
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