Seattle Gives OK To Rideshare Drivers Hoping To Unionize

Seattle on Monday became the first us city to pass a law giving drivers for Uber and Lyft the right to unionize, a new challenge to the ride companies’ success as they confront mounting dissatisfaction over how drivers are treated.

The Seattle City Council passed a measure on Monday that will allow drivers for services like Uber and Lyft to organize, a major development in a debate that is being closely watched for what it means about the so-called on-demand economy.

In the first scenario, the companies could argue that the local Seattle law is pre-empted by the federal National Labor Relations Act, which covers collective bargaining in most of the private sector.

No surprise, executives at companies like Uber and Lyft are wishing those experiments would stop.

Supporters said unionization would allow drivers to earn a living wage and receive benefits.

Under the ordinance, proposed by Councilmember Mike O’Brien, a company would be required to provide the city with a list of its Seattle drivers. Under the ordinance, nonprofit groups will be formed as the bargaining representatives for drivers, provided a majority of drivers want representation. Uber drivers who take out loans to buy cars have become “trapped by debt”, she added.

O’Brien is trying to get a vote Monday, the last meeting of the lame-duck City Council. “My understanding is that a couple councilmembers here also asked the Federal Trade Commission to look at this, as they had some concerns about the anticompetitive behavior that this ordinance might be suggesting”.

Uber, a company valued this month at $62.5 billion after a new investment according to the Times, relies on 400,000 drivers nationwide.

Uber and Lyft representatives were not on hand during today’s public comment, but have opposed the bill and are now likely to undertake a high-profile legal fight with the city over federal labor and anti-trust laws.

State legislators in OH and Florida are moving ahead with regulations governing Uber and other ride services that would designate all drivers as independent contractors, bolstering a critical but much-disputed aspect of Uber’s business model.

It’s clear that backers of this ordinance are more concerned about doing Big Labor’s bidding than doing what is best for Seattle taxpayers, independent drivers or riders who use such platforms to get around town.

A man drives a sedan with an Uber sticker on it. Helping with everything from food deliveries to house cleaning, on-demand startups are becoming more commonplace, and many of them classify their workers as 1099 and not W-2 employees. But taxi, for-hire and app-dispatched drivers are categorized as independent contractors, rather than employees, so those federal protections don’t apply to them. This case could affect Uber’s case in its class-action lawsuit brought against it by drivers who sought to be recognized as employees and have sought reimbursement for expenses. “We have no way to negotiate with Uber.”“The only way we can achieve what we deserve as a driver is by working together, ” he said.