"I Am the C.E.O. of Uber. Gig Workers Deserve Better."
what an absolute coward.
Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
311–320 of 887 posts
Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#312Civic safety nets should be the responsibility of duly elected governments. Pushing health care, sick leave, etc., onto businesses is so backwards.
Our body politic wants all these protections but can't muster the will to do it "properly". I see this as "pass a law, and make it someone else's problem".
Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#313Maybe I'm cynical but "temporarily shut down" sounds like a formula to: - Inconvenience a certain class of urbanites who have grown accustomed to being driven around in the hopes that they - Complain loudly to their representatives and other governmental officials in the hope that - The state will reverse this judgement
This is about pushing voters to approve Prop 22 in november. If Lyft follows suit, it will definitely put a spotlight on the issue!
Hadn't heard of that and had to look it up. To save anyone else the time, apparently Prop 22 is a one that (as best I understand) would reverse AB 5 specifically for app-based driving apps, which seems really narrow and preferential, even by the standards of CA propositions. Here's the Ballotpedia:
https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_22,_App-Based...
Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#314> "What worker doesn't want to have access to paid sick leave?" Becerra said. "What worker doesn't want to have unemployment insurance at a time of Covid-19 crisis? What worker doesn't want to know that they'll get paid for overtime if they work 60 hours in a week or 12 hours in a day?" Since when are we reasoning about workers starting from what they want? If we go by that reasoning, "What worker does not want to be…
> Increase the costs of running the service, and you don't have work anymore. This hasn't been found to be the case when increasing the minimum wage, though.
Really? Wouldn't barely profitable businesses cease to be profitable anymore and go bankrupt
Surely if we mandated that the federal minimum wage is $50, we'd see businesses go out of business left and right, correct? Why would we not see a directional change like this for smaller hikes? Do you have any sources?
Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That seems like the definition of capriciously applying laws, and would seem like it would create more problems arising from unequal application of laws. AB5 is a case of capriciously writing laws. The state wrote a new law that was specifically intended to put Uber and similar companies in a state of noncompliance with it.
Isn't every law specifically intended to put a group of people in noncompliance with it? What's the point of making a law if everyone was going to comply regardless?
The power to create laws is not supposed to be used as weapon. It clearly was in this case.
AB5 was written in bad faith with the goal of hurting specific companies, not with the goal of writing a sensible law that sets a framework for how businesses ought to operate. They wrote it in such a hurry that it unintentionally hurt a bunch of other people and small businesses. That's not how laws are supposed to work.
Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#316Golden opportunity for the taxicab industry to get its act together and compete on a semi-level playing field.
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Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except these are adults of sound mind willingly entering into the agreement. I absolutely loathe these types of arguments first because its false equivalence and secondly, because why do you know better than the Freelance Journalists who were hurt by this? Stop nannying.
Adults of sound mind enter into all sorts of highly regulated agreements, starting from employment, to tenancy, to gym memberships, to even things like marriages [1]. The reason for why all those agreements are highly regulated isn't because they adults entering them are not of sound mind. The reason for it is that there is often a large imbalance of power between the two parties in the contract. This kind of regulat…
Economic regulation of this order has not been around > 300 years in fact it's only been really been a question of what is the right balance since post industrialization. And the fact we're having this discussion at all means there are arguments to be had in either direction for worker regulation of this nature. I personally believe over regulation is harmful and we're currently seeing that harm play out to independent workers in multiple industries in California.
Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#318Could this be posturing to get the state to back down on the enforcement of its decision? And does anyone have a guess if Uber is making money in California right now? Given the state is still in lock down.
I think that's exactly what it is. It's a signal to the state saying "we're gonna lay off a bunch of people and blame you for it if you do this." I'm confident Uber is capable of doing complex things quickly when it is in Uber's interests to do so.
You can't 'lay off' people you don't employ in the first place.
Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
> in every country uber operated/operates in they are against the law. Wrong > Uber specifically displays the current problem with new startups, they don't make things more effective, or cheaper. Wrong ( https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-vs-taxi-pricing-by-city... and even more since then with Uber X expansion)
On the first point, could you supply a bit more than just "wrong"? That's not a very convincing argument. Do you have data? Evidence? Anything besides just "wrong"?
The claim that Uber is illegal in every country is so stupid it doesn't even merit a response.
Re: Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ridiculous that it takes a legal battle for Uber to offer these customer and driver friendly features
In what world is enabling drivers to see where a rider is going before accepting the trip, or removing requirements for Uber Pro, or removing features from the loyalty program, or removing upfront pricing, or removing the ability for customers to have favorite drivers "customer friendly"?
I think it's just the opposite: Uber is trying to change the platform so they no longer fit the definition of "Employee". Three changes are so that the driver more closely models a taxi service which is a self employment.
In other words: Uber wants the service to be worse so they don't have to give drivers with health insurance. If people complain, that's to Ubers benefit, because they want to keep their indentured workers.