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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.
Uber secretly hates its drivers, and is dieing to replace them with bots. Its founding members can't wait until the day Uber becomes a fully autonomous moneymaking machine and they can live a life of endless hedonism on the Bahamas while being fed a constant supply of effortless funds
The IRS defines who is and is not a contractor. These drivers simply are not independent contractors. First they would need a business permit in order to be contractors. They can not be supervised by Uber in any way, And they would need a written contract that offers them benefits roughly equal to any benefits Uber gets by offering the contract. So many businesses steal money by falsely calling people independents or piece workers and it is fraud both to the workers as well as numerous public agencies. For example, a Uber driver, injured in a wreck can not get Workman's comp. And Workman's compensation suffers an economic loss when employees are falsely called independent contractors.
except for the increased wages by bringing strike pressure to bear. Oh, and they make sure you can strike without fear of reprisal and with enough food/money to survive a strike. Oh, and then there's the better benefits from the bargaining. Then there's enforcing worker safety when OSHA can't or won't. Then There's protecting workers from age discrimination. Then there's ensuring workers get trained instead of paying for their own training out of pocket.
You know, you're right. Unions have done about as much for the working man as the Romans did for those guys from Monty Python.
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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."
>> We busted up the mob years ago. They've got nothing to do with Unions now.
You must not live near Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philly, etc. or take a close look at who's involved in the pension plans then.
e.g., http://deadline.com/2015/09/mo...
You have the implicit assumption that technology equates to doing things better. It does not. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Uber's way of doing things may not be better even if it does use technology.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Correct they grew out of the small level organized crime that the mobs provided and ushered in a whole new level of organized crime
You are spectacularly ignorant of history.
Unions grew out of a desire for fairness and justice for workers. There have been sad periods where mobs influenced some unions (not to mention governments and police forces) but unions were never founded on the objectives of mobsters.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
It's funny how many people hear the word "unions" and race to the garbage disposal to cram in their brains and flip the "on" switch, based on the same tired 50-year-old capitalist buuuuuulshit. If you work for a living and are against unions, then you're as much of an idiot as a slave who opposed the 13th Amendment.
Or try opening a business in a gang run area then demand all the benefits of the gang's protection (i.e. not having your store burned to the ground) while paying none of the dues.
Voluntary association. It either is or it isn't.