Seattle approves letting Uber drivers unionize – WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking

In a unanimous 8-0 city council vote, Seattle became the first city in the U.S.to allow the unionization of employees for companies like Uber and Lyft.

This afternoon, the Seattle city council unanimously passed a bill that will give drivers the right to collectively bargain.

And on top of that, the city council’s decision will nearly certainly be challenged in the courts. She called the bill “a historic step towards offering collective bargaining rights for otherwise precarious workers”.

That’s where Seattle’s city council has stepped in.

Other drivers have sued Uber for misclassifying them as contractors.

The approved legislation will allow Seattle drivers join a nonprofit that qualifies as a “Driver Representative Organization” (like a union).

Get Me plans to relocate its headquarters from Dallas to Austin in 2016, and Laramy told KXAN plans to expand to the rideshare market were in place well before Uber and Lyft threatened to pull out.

Kitschke argued that the lion’s share of all revenue generated goes to the driver partner, and stays local, adding that out of every dollar spent by a rider, at least 75 percent of the fare is kept by the partner. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and others are warming to the idea of forbearing regulators from cracking down on companies experimenting with ways to provide benefits – though it remains to be seen whether that, or any other federal action on the issue, will come to pass.

If the labor law argument doesn’t hold, the industry could still fight the legislation with antitrust law.

Mayor Ed Murray says he will not sign the bill because of the potential cost to the city, but he won’t veto it so the measure will become law without his signature. Murray wrote that the local collective bargaining process needed to be clarified.

As independent contractors, Uber and Lyft drivers cover the cost of shuttling their passengers around. In a statement, Uber told CBS that its company is about letting drivers be independent with flexible hours, and that half of its drivers are on the road less than 10 hours a week. “They are providing a ride sharing opportunity, part time, no cash changing hands, fully electronic”.

The per-mile fare for Uber and Lyft rides in Seattle is $1.35, a little more than half what it was a couple years ago.

Seattle leaders legalized ride-services in June 2014.

Uber says drivers have flexibility in deciding when they work and how many hours, and many chose to drive to supplement their income.

In a news release dated November 5, Uber’s Texas spokesperson, Debbee Hancock said, “Councilmember Kitchen’s plan would impose 19 Century regulations on 21st Century technology…Uber has improved mobility for half a million people in Austin, but Councilmember Kitchen’s proposal would take Austin backwards and eliminate this reliable transportation option”.

Many drivers in Seattle are immigrants who depend on full-time work, but some make less than minimum wage and lack basic worker rights, such as sick leave and protection from retaliation, O’Brien said. The law underscores much larger questions about the modern workforce – questions like who works for whom, and how independent are independent contractors.

“It is a virtual certainty that the ordinance will be challenged in court if it is enacted”, said Charlotte Garden, an assistant law professor at Seattle University.