Re:The Uber leak exposes the global war on workers
by fallingknife on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @01:27PM
(#32073164)
But the government did jump in, and they didn't improve things. They created the cab cartels which is what made it so shitty in the first place.
Re:The Uber leak exposes the global war on workers
by runarberg on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @02:22PM
(#32073845)
I think people are asking them to jump in in a different way, or at least that’s my reading of the situation.
People are asking for general labor laws which prohibits companies from misusing contractor status as a way of bypassing benefits and reasonable work hours.
People are asking the for a public alternative to taxi service, including more frequent buses that service wider areas, longer into the night so they won’t have to use the taxis so much.
Note that better labor laws will also fix the situation for the traditional taxi companies, as they won’t be able to exploit their workers either by e.g. a weird medallion system. You’ll probably have to pay more then previously for your cab ride (as the driver needs fair wages for their work), but that’s where the public alternative to cab rides comes in.
So asking if Uber behaved ethically is indeed a useful question (even more so if the answer is obvious) because if they did, and if their behavior is indeed common in the industry, it provides a pretty solid justification for the government to jump in and improve things, where the free market isn’t.