
US Ride-Share Drivers Ready for Countrywide Strike Ahead of Uber IPO - clouddrover
https://www.thedrive.com/news/27824/us-ride-share-drivers-ready-for-massive-countrywide-strike-ahead-of-uber-ipo
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oooshha
Sorry but if taxi drivers are committing suicide due to losses on medallion
value, they should be protesting city hall, not Uber. If the government wants
to create rent seeking monopolies then it needs to have a plan to unwind them
when things change.

~~~
darpa_escapee
> _Sorry but if taxi drivers are committing suicide due to losses on medallion
> value, they should be protesting city hall, not Uber._

Taxi drivers aren't protesting, it's the ride-share drivers who are
protesting. Ride-share drivers have grievances with Uber outside of what's
happening to traditional taxi drivers.

~~~
marmshallow
Ride share drivers are protesting;

Taxi drivers are committing suicide;

Please read the article before you take a side;

~~~
darpa_escapee
I'm very capable of reading the article, and have.

If you had read and comprehended my post, and the post I responded to, you
would have seen that the OP was taking offense to the idea that _taxi drivers_
were protesting Uber.

Having read the article, it is clear that the OP is mistaken, because _taxi
drivers_ are not protesting.

Hope this helps.

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ThrustVectoring
Because Uber's drivers are "independent contractors", there's a legal argument
that could be made that this sort of coordinated activity to raise the cost to
employ ride-share drivers is illegal under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

~~~
kiran-rao
Is there any way to enforce this act?

~~~
CPLX
Just as an FYI if we do start taking antitrust seriously again there are a lot
more important and consequential targets than some low paid car service
drivers.

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chii
and the drivers who refuse to strike will reap the large surge price increases
due to shortage of drivers.

~~~
perfmode
Short term gain for an arguably-larger long term loss.

~~~
asaph
For drivers, there are only short term gains to be had. Fully autonomous
vehicles are the centerpiece of the ride share roadmap (for Uber, Lyft and
even Tesla). Drivers might as well capitalize on short term opportunities
while they still exist. There is no long term game for them.

~~~
Razengan
As a commuter I long for the day after which I never have to interact with a
human driver again.

~~~
godzillabrennus
It’s already wonderful seeing touch screens and self checkout kiosks replacing
retail workers who hated being there.

The only issue is that the highest paid blue collar jobs left are in
transportation and construction. Those are on the chopping block.

Then what?

What new system will we use to ensure those people have a life they find
agreeable.

~~~
chii
> What new system will we use to ensure those people have a life they find
> agreeable

After blue collar jobs are eliminated, people will need to skill up in order
to create an agreeable life. The best that the state can do is UBI, but that's
not an agreeable life - it should be at best, just life.

~~~
jo-wol
Software engineers are new blue collar class.

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otterley
Primary source: [http://www.nytwa.org/home/2019/5/3/strike-uber-lyft-all-
app-...](http://www.nytwa.org/home/2019/5/3/strike-uber-lyft-all-app-drivers-
on-wed-may-8th-7am-9am)

------
tootie
2 Lyft drivers in a row ditched me today. Maybe the strike started early.

~~~
everly
More likely you were going to an undesirable location, were asking to be
picked up in an inconvenient place, or didn't come out within 5 minutes.

~~~
tootie
1) I was going to one of the fanciest neighborhoods in my city

2) There was a marked Lyft pickup location because it is a local hotspot

3) I was on the curb before ordering the car.

Per the GPS, first car just never moved. Second one just kept driving further
and further away while I waited.

~~~
everly
Fair enough, the driver may not have perceived it that way though. Just
because it's a fancy neighborhood doesn't mean it's a desirable drop-off
location for the driver's purposes. Just because there is a Lyft pickup spot
out front doesn't mean it is easy to get there from where the driver currently
is.

Another possibility is that your ride wasn't subject to a primetime fare and
they thought that they had a good chance of getting one that was by canceling
and waiting for the next request. That doesn't justify poor driver behavior,
but I'm just being realistic.

Apologies for implying that you were doing anything wrong, I only meant to
give a driver's perspective of the valid reasons for avoiding rides.

That said, I've gotten the impression that I'm more 'honest' than most drivers
so it's possible there are some scams or strategies which create weird
incentives/behavior that I'm not aware of.

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dannyw
Isn’t Uber giving drivers up to a $10k bonus on IPO based on how many rides
completed, with the option of taking it in cash or equity at the same IPO
price?

That is really significant and pretry equitable.

------
empath75
It’ll be interesting to see what happens once all the workers in the gig
economy recognize the power they have to just destroy these companies. Uber
can’t really retaliate people organizing against them because they aren’t
employees.

~~~
themagician
They have no power. They have numbers but they can’t use them.

They are too poor and too desperate to be unemployed for long, they have no
benefits, and many will be replaced with robots.

The gig economy is an underclass. They are serfs. Unless they rise up
violently nothing will change.

~~~
techslave
or take up a skilled trade

~~~
hedvig
Leaen2code

~~~
dang
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?

