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Contractors or Not, Seattle Uber Drivers Might Get Collective Bargaining
The Seattle Times reports on a development in Seattle that might have implications for other cities with contentious relationships with transportation coordinating services like Uber. Seattle councilman Mike O'Brien has proposed a system under which drivers for Lyft, Uber, and similar companies would be represented in collective bargaining agreements with the companies they do work for.
The proposal would require taxi companies, for-hire vehicle companies and app-based ride-dispatch companies, including Uber and Lyft, to negotiate agreements with drivers on issues such as payment and working conditions.
The approach would be novel because of the drivers’ employment status. The National Labor Relations Act gives employees, but not independent contractors, the right to bargain as a union. ... Under O’Brien’s plan, a nonprofit organization would need to show support from a majority of a company’s drivers to be designated by the city as their bargaining representative. The organization would use a list of drivers provided by the company.
Sucks to have your pay docked by a shadow government that does nothing for you, but that's the way it's going to have to be in some retrograde cities.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Whether you are pro or anti union, you shouldn't deny workers the right to organize.
Being able to stand together as a counter-balance to the power of the company is kind of important, whether they choose to take advantage of that right or not.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Here's a list of some of the things we can thank unions for:
Weekends
All Breaks at Work, including your Lunch Breaks
Paid Vacation
FMLA
Sick Leave
Social Security
Minimum Wage
Civil Rights Act/Title VII (Prohibits Employer Discrimination)
8-Hour Work Day
Overtime Pay
Child Labor Laws
Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
40 Hour Work Week
Worker's Compensation (Worker's Comp)
Unemployment Insurance
Pensions
Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations
Employer Health Care Insurance
Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees
Wrongful Termination Laws
Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
Whistleblower Protection Laws
Employee Polygraph Protect Act (Prohibits Employer from using a lie detector test on an employee)
Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS)
Compensation increases and Evaluations (Raises)
Sexual Harassment Laws
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
Holiday Pay
Employer Dental, Life, and Vision Insurance
Privacy Rights
Pregnancy and Parental Leave
Military Leave
The Right to Strike
Public Education for Children
Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 (Requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work)
Laws Ending Sweatshops in the United States
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
The very point in capitalism is to make bank without labour, whereas the very principle of socialism is that you can only earn while labouring. Laziness is a capitalist virtue, as long as it is smart laziness.
This is lost on some of the college-capitalist blowhards who go around calling socialists lazy. Socialism is unpopular precisely because more intelligent people aren't able to use their brains to reduce the amount of labour they are required to do to survive, so instead go for cronyism.
(This isn't speaking in defence of or opposition to either. I'm a mixed market pragmatist.)