SEATTLE — Dozens of hospitality workers who contract with Facebook parent company Meta are planning a demonstration in Seattle on Thursday to call for more transparency over potential layoffs as the company plans to close local offices.
Hospitality workers have become a big part of the tech industry as companies like Meta offer amenities like meals to recruit and keep top-tier talent.
The union Unite Here! represents some 300,000 hospitality workers and says nearly 4,000 now work in the tech industry largely in cities like Seattle, Silicon Valley and New York.
"It's opened up a whole new space for these people to find jobs in," said Sarah Jacobson with Unite Here! Local 8.
As tech workers face layoffs in Seattle though, hospitality workers said they are worried about their job and are looking for answers.
"People have been quitting in mass over this because they can't risk being given a week's notice," said Doug Lawson, lead line cook.
Lawson said workers are asking Meta for any information regarding their future employment and are also calling for equal severance packages as the tech workers and engineers they serve.
"A lot of tech workers reach out to us tell how important the food is for them," Lawson said. "Because these companies have made billions of dollars, I think it is their responsibility to pay us a living wage and to treat us with respect and to not treat us as disposable."
According to Jacobson, there are currently around 130 hospitality workers at Meta's South Lake Union offices.
When workers bargain as a union, they do so with the company Flagship Culinary Services which is a contractor of Meta.
KING 5 reached out to Meta for a response on the planned demonstration, but as of Thursday morning has not heard back.
The Seattle Times reported that Meta will sublease its six-story office space in Seattle on 8th Avenue and its 11-story building is scheduled to open later this year in Bellevue's Spring District.
Across dozens of offices in the Seattle area, Meta employs nearly 8,000 workers.
Last year Meta announced it was shrinking its workforce by some 11,000 workers including more than 700 in the Seattle area.