[P2P-F] Fwd: [NetworkedLabour] Unionizing Uber: New front in battle over wildly successful ride-hailing app

Fri Mar 25 00:26:49 CET 2016

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Orsan Senalp <orsan1234 at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 9:54 PM
Subject: Re: [NetworkedLabour] Unionizing Uber: New front in battle over
wildly successful ride-hailing app
To: peter waterman <peterwaterman1936 at gmail.com>
Cc: networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org

Should uber's global driver organize itself globally, locally, virtually,
or all of the above?

On 24 Mar 2016, at 15:42, peter waterman <peterwaterman1936 at GMAIL.COM>
wrote:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 10:30 PM
Subject: Unionizing Uber: New front in battle over wildly successful
ride-hailing app
To:
Cc: Labour-l <Labour-l at googlegroups.com>, Paul Buhle <Paul_Buhle at brown.edu>

*http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/uber-unions-washington-state-1.3496655
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/uber-unions-washington-state-1.3496655>CBC
                    Mar 23, 2016 *

*Unionizing Uber: New front in battle over wildly successful ride-hailing
appSeattle became 1st city in North America to give Uber drivers the right
to unionize late last year<image.png>By Chris Brown, Chris Corday*

Chris Brown is CBC's National Reporter based in Vancouver. He has a passion
for great stories, and continues traveling all over Canada and the world to
find and tell them.

There's a four-wheeled workers' revolution spinning through the streets of
Seattle that could end up rolling over one of the most profitable business
models of the so-called "sharing economy."

Drivers for the ride-hailing service Uber have been given the right to
unionize by Seattle city council, the only jurisdiction in North America to
do so.

The union drive brings the potential to achieve what regulators in cities
around the world, including in Canada, have been mostly ineffective at
doing — imposing local rules and labour standards on how Uber relates with
its drivers.

"We have no say," Seattle Uber driver Don Creery told CBC News on a recent
visit to the city. "We can email the company about issues, but they just
get ignored. It seems the company has an agenda to push the prices as low
as they can."

Supporters cheer during a meeting in December 2015 when Seattle's city
council voted to approve a measure that would allow ride-hailing drivers
for Uber and Lyft to unionize. (Matt Mills McKnight/Reuters)

Rates, benefits as contentious issues

The rates Uber pays its drivers, as well as other compensation issues, such
as tipping, are among the most contentious claims.

Uber's rates vary from city to city but in Seattle, Creery says they began
at $1.80 US a mile when the ride-hailing service first started up there in
2013.

But now Creery says rates are just over a dollar and can drop even lower at
a moment's notice when Uber announces special pricing.

Uber counters that drivers have the flexibility to drive whenever and
wherever they want, but Creery disagrees.

"When the rates were higher, that flexibility option was real. When the
rates do down, there are certain hours you have to work."

Seattle Uber driver Don Creery is on the leadership council of the
App-Based Drivers Association, and is an advocate for unionization. (Simon
Charland/CBC)

City Coun. Mike O'Brien has championed the drivers' cause before Seattle's
council and co-wrote the bylaw granting them collective bargaining rights.

"What we're trying to do in Seattle with this legislation that lets drivers
collectively bargain is say we're going to acknowledge this is a new
world," said O'Brien.

"We like the creativity and innovation, but we want some innovation for
workers."

Hugely profitable

The obstacles to unionization are significant, but so is the potential to
disrupt Uber's wildly successful business model.

One recent valuation claimed the company is worth more than $62 billion US.

The question of whether Uber drivers are employees or independent
contractors is at the heart of the dispute.

In both the United States and Canada, federal anti-trust legislation — the
cornerstone of modern labour law — prohibits contractors from unionizing so
as to avoid practices such as price-fixing and to encourage competition.

Seattle Coun. Mike O'Brien spearheaded the bylaw that gives Uber drivers
the right to form a union. (Simon Charland/CBC)

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has slapped Seattle with a lawsuit, claiming
its local, pro-union bylaw is an overt violation of the federal statute.

But O'Brien, the bylaw's author, argues the federal law never anticipated a
company like Uber, where workers meet the definition of both contractors
and employees.

"In some ways, these drivers look like independent contractors. They own
their own cars, they set their own hours," says O'Brien.

"In other cases they look like workers. They don't set their rates of pay.
Uber can decide arbitrarily that you can't work for us. You get
'deactivated' or fired. So it's a hybrid."

Questions for Canada

Some Canadian jurisdictions, such as British Columbia, recognize a third
category of workers called "dependent contractors."

An example might include truck loggers, who own their hauling rigs but work
primarily for one forestry company and receive set rates.

The leadership council of the App-Based Drivers Association meets at the
Teamsters Union headquarters in Tukwila, Wash., near Seattle. (Simon
Charland/CBC)

Tom Knight, a professor with UBC's Sauder School of Business, says whether
such employees can unionize is decided on a case-by-case basis by the
provincial labour relations board.

"I wouldn't hazard a prediction as to what would be found to be the case
[with Uber drivers]," Knight said.

On a recent trip to Seattle, CBC News hailed several Uber vehicles and
found a mix of views among local drivers.

"They're trying to control a system that not necessarily needs to be
controlled," said driver Larry Green. "When I look at a union, I look at
fees. I look at a big fight."

Uber's Seattle general manager acknowledged the company has been calling
drivers, urging them to say no to the unionization effort.

"We believe that flexibility and freedom of flexibility for drivers is
paramount," Brooke Steger told CBC News. "All we have here is an ordinance
that has some very serious legal questions."

Some Uber drivers, like Kameron Trout, say a union could ruin the "be your
own boss" idea that attracted them to Uber. (Simon Charland/CBC)

Bigger than Uber

Until the legal fight is settled in court, some Uber drivers have formed
the "App-Based Drivers Association" and are working alongside the Teamsters
labour union to raise awareness before a potential vote.

Teamsters representative Dawn Gearhart says Uber is worried that the union
idea could spread around the world as quickly as the company's app has.

"I think it's significant because more and more of the work we do is going
to be dispatched through apps. Whether it's for health care, home-cleaning
businesses, delivery services," said Gearhart.

"That work is going to happen over a smartphone, not on the factory floor.
Still you are a worker and you need rights."

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