On Monday, the Seattle City Council voted 8-0 in favor of legislation that lets drivers working for Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing companies unionize over working conditions and pay.
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“This bill was only introduced out of necessity after witnessing how little power drivers themselves had in working for a living wage”, Seattle Councilman O’Brien said in a statement.
Last week, a US judge ruled that many more Uber drivers in California could participate in a class action against the ride service over their employment status, even if they did not opt out of an arbitration clause in their contracts. Drivers can be represented by nonprofit organizations licensed by the city.
“Since I started driving for Uber, Uber has cut our pay without notice, terminated drivers without giving a reason, and blocked our efforts to improve our working conditions”.
Until Monday, on-demand drivers were not protected by the federal labor law, as companies like Uber and Lyft do not consider them employees, but rather contractors or partners.
Mayor Ed Murray, who said he supports the right of workers to organize, nevertheless cited concerns with administration costs.
Unsurprisingly, Uber and Lyft are not fans of the union legislation. Its rival, Lyft, also has thousands of drivers in Seattle but declined to give a specific number. They say the ordinance would violate federal antitrust laws by allowing independent transportation providers to conspire to artificially drive up transportation costs. The law also applies to all other drivers for taxi and for-hire companies who hold for-hire vehicle licenses.
He said he would like to bargain over safety, living wage and other issues. “Drivers say that with flexible and independent work with Uber, 50% of them drive fewer than 10 hours a week, 70% have full-time or part-time work outside of Uber and 65% choose to vary the hours they drive 25% week-to-week”.
Some for-hire drivers who spoke at the public hearing urged the council to hold off on the legislation, saying they didn’t have a voice in the process.
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According to Dawn Gearhart, business representative for the Teamsters Local 117 Union, a court battle over the new policy is expected.
