I don't know what the established criteria are for 'reasonable commuting distance' in the SF Bay area, but seems like a big forced transfer like this might need a WARN act notice, which is going to get the company in the news for layoffs. And probably in the news for not providing the notice in a timely fashion, too.
This would be a bad look for a company that cared about how it looks.
This would be a bad look for a company that cared about how it looks.