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Seattle Passes First Uber Drivers' Union Into Law (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The city council of Seattle has unanimously voted in favour of a proposal which will require Uber — and driving-related companies which operate on the same principle — to allow its drivers to be represented by a union, the first of its kind in the US. The lead-up to the vote was hallmarked by opposition from Seattle's mayor Ed Murray, and by a publicity campaign from Uber, which opposed the bill. Though the law will allow collective bargaining for drivers which are effectively on zero-hours contracts, any effect it has on current disputes as to whether Uber drivers are employees or contractors will be ambient rather than direct.
But we already have laws stating what employers can and cannot do to employees. We have laws detailing how long a shift can be and how long you must have off between shifts. We have laws about what kind of breaks you have to have during your shift. We have laws about the employer not being able to discriminate pay rates or hiring practices based on things like gender or ethnicity. There are laws about minimum wages.
Unions were very good at one point in history when corporations were actually abusing their employees. Now that there are ample laws in place protecting employees, unions have become less necessary. They seem to have the opposite effect that they once had. They continue to push for higher and higher wages, and more benefits, until it becomes financially irresponsible to the shareholders to continue to pay those rates, when they know that there are cheaper workers who will do the job in other countries.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Dude, it's the People's Democratic Republic of Washington. Everything is unionized, like it or not: you have to demonstrate that you're a Jehovah's Witness in order not to belong to a union. Even if you don't join the union, they still pull dues from your paycheck and represent you if you run into problems: "joining" is just making sure that they have your home e-mail address instead of your work address.
Also, taxes are high, prices on food and other essentials are twice what they are in the South, infrastructure sucks, the people are stupid and lazy and smug, pot is legal and all the stupid lazy smug assholes are constantly high, and god I hate it here.
But we already have laws stating what employers can and cannot do to employees. We have laws detailing how long a shift can be and how long you must have off between shifts. We have laws about what kind of breaks you have to have during your shift. We have laws about the employer not being able to discriminate pay rates or hiring practices based on things like gender or ethnicity. There are laws about minimum wages.
Well, you're right. But most of this is NOT relevant to this particular situation, because Uber has fought to claim that it's employees aren't actually "employees."
Thus, they don't have to conform to most of those laws you mention. Hence people arguing that they may need a union to obtain such basic protections.
Or have you somehow missed the continuous parade of court cases about whether Uber "employees" are actually employed by Uber?