Seattle City Council says Uber and Lyft drivers can unionize

Uber has roughly 400,000 drivers nationwide, including 10,000 in Seattle, according to the Associated Press.

“I said consistently during this debate that I support the right of workers to organize to create a fair and just workplace”, he said.

The council passed the measure on an 8-0 vote. The measure would not convert drivers into employees except for this limited objective – a strategy originally developed by unions representing home health aides and child-care providers. However, he noted that under the City Charter the ordinance does not need his signature to come into force.

“As this ordinance takes effect, my administration will begin its work to determine what it will take to implement the law”, he added. Seattle was one of the first major cities to dramatically increase its minimum wage, and this bill follows that progressive path by allowing drivers for services like Uber and Lyft, as well as taxi drivers, to collectively bargain for better wages and benefits.

“Uber does not share and does not care”, said Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

Uber and Lyft are already fighting a federal class action lawsuit that seeks to treat drivers as employees by paying them mileage and expenses. Ride-hailing firms will be able to tout that the rate has been set by a drivers’ group, not the indifferent forces of supply and demand.

Neither Uber nor Lyft could make representatives available for comment Monday, but Lyft released a statement asking the mayor and city council to reconsider the ordinance.

The ordinance would require the company to hammer out an agreement with the representative organization. That organization would help negotiate pay and working conditions.

“We’ve heard from Seattle drivers making sub-minimum wage, and companies like Uber have turned a deaf ear to their concerns”.

“I am with the for hires”. But plenty of drivers who try to make a full-time living out of it have their grievances. “Most of drivers in this city are immigrants, so we came to this country to work hard and to get paid what we deserve”, Gobena said.

“We request that you don’t vote today and give us a chance”, he said. Were ride-hailing drivers determined to be employees, they would be covered by the NLRA, which would invalidate Seattle’s ordinance. But the city’s Democratic mayor still needs to sign the law, and it will nearly certainly face a legal challenge from Uber and other companies that could tie it up in court for years. Under that scenario, Uber and others may argue that drivers banding together as independent contractors – and presumably raising the cost of their labor – amounts to illegal price-fixing.

Uber and Lyft also released statements focusing on the opportunity, flexibility and control drivers have with the current ride-hailing marketplaces.