Ride-sharing apps are filled with employment law blackholes. Will Seattle’s solution help?

Photo Credit: ohhector cc
Photo Credit: ohhector cc

Joining the ranks of others claiming Uber and Lyft is robbing its drivers of fair pay, two Seattle city council members have released a new bill that’s a little unprecedented: allow for-hire drivers to unionize and bargain over pay and working conditions. As The Stranger reports:

[City council member Mike] O’Brien’s legislation, which he plans to introduce to the city council next week, would allow drivers to choose a nonprofit organization to represent them in bargaining negotiations with ride-share companies over pay and working conditions. (Drivers could also become members of the nonprofit.) The new process would cover taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers, as well as drivers for app-based companies like Lyft and Uber. Drivers currently get some organizing help from the Teamsters Local 117, but can’t bargain directly with their corporate employers like they could if they had a union.

Under O’Brien’s proposal, the city would approve the nonprofit organizations doing the bargaining and provide them with lists of all the drivers at each ride-share company. They would then have 120 days to show that a majority of the drivers for any one company wanted to be represented. After bargaining, the city would review final agreements only to make sure they’re in line with city code, according to O’Brien. Failures in the bargaining process would end up in arbitration, and then the courts, rather than the National Labor Relations Board, would enforce the resulting contracts.

Obviously the proposal faces quite the legal battle: This is a fairly untested method being issued to “independent contractors” who (if classified correctly) shouldn’t be able to unionize under the NLRA. Many city officials aren’t sure if they have the legal right here. If the law isn’t on their side, it’s not as easy as being the only city in the country with equal access to weed, $15 minimum wage, and socialist city council members.

Additionally, Uber officials have not taken too kindly to threats to their business model in the past. Already, one driver who spoke at the press conference has said Uber has made some retaliation against him

But it’s definitely a fresh take. As many have noted, the risk of stifling an industry is no excuse for poor business practices. And if these ride-share empires are being built on such startling statistics (one driver from the press conference says he learns as little as $2.75 an hour, after cost of driving), that’s something that’s worth fixing.

“There’s nothing innovative about crafting a whole new industry that is fueled on the backs of low-wage workers,” O’Brien said today.