Would Laws Allowing Uber Hurt Entrepreneurialism?

Uber is one of the best entrepreneurial app ideas to ever hit the world. Working on two fronts, it supplies people with a ride without a hassle and allows anyone with a valid driver’s license, a vehicle, and a clear background to transport people around for money. The biggest hurdle to the app has been governing the people who drive and the legalities of liability and responsibility for both passenger and driver.

Another issue is the fact that it has all but tanked the cab and taxi industry in many cities around the nation. If you can get on an app and have someone pick you up without any barriers, what is to stop you? What is happening in Seattle, however, has implications for Uber drivers and other gig industries everywhere.

Teamsters Local 117 has been asked to gain permission to organize Uber drivers and has petitioned to force Uber to hand over drivers’ information by April 13th of this year. It is now in the hands of the court whether they will step in or not.

Seattle’s law is set to allow Uber taxi drivers and Lyft drivers to unionize, and many fear it will hurt entrepreneurs everywhere around the nation. Seen as nothing more than adding a middleman, allowing drivers to unionize is just another person with their hands out stealing profits — which is the exact opposite of the reason that Uber and Lyft were started.

Since Uber and Lyft drivers aren’t technically “employees,” they are similar to entrepreneurs who have their own business and get to do as they say and see fit. Not being beholden to anyone else’s schedule, rules or territorial boundaries is the biggest type of free market that there is. Letting the unions get involved could kill the entire business and business plan behind it.

Teamsters Local 117 doesn’t care about the imposition; they are planning on moving forward with their attempt to make a union “for-hire” so that they have more power for collective bargaining on behalf of the drivers and so that drivers will be afforded more protection. But it won’t matter what their intentions are if the federal government steps in and rules that they can’t unionize.

Dozens of Lyft and Uber drivers, along with the US Chamber of Commerce, have stepped in and filed their own objections and suits to the Teamsters’ attempt. They insist that since they aren’t employees but independent contractors, they aren’t allowed to unionize under federal law, but it is in the hands of the court now.

Many around the nation are watching what will happen in the Seattle courts with bated breath. It won’t only affect the for-hire driver industry; it has the potential to affect the entire gig economy workforce.

The law allowing the Teamsters to try to unionize went into effect at the beginning of last year and had a waiting period before they could try to get people to join. The city of Seattle gave the Teamsters, permission to try to get the drivers on board, and ordered that Lyft and Uber supply the Teamsters with the necessary information by April 3rd of this year.

Not all drivers are against the move. Some for-hire drivers barely make minimum wage due to  vehicle expenses and driving around the city. They believe that unionizing would be an opportunity for them to collectively bargain for higher compensation and more benefits for workers.

Those opposed insist that unionizing would break the spirit of the company idea and threaten the freedom that for-hire drivers enjoy. With two sides to every story, it depends on how much money you are currently making and the effort that you want to put in to earn a good living. It is about getting ahead by your own accord instead of unionizing to make sure that everyone gets the “same.”

This has been a debate since the idea came along; the new legalities of unionizing Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers in Seattle has huge implications for a growing industry of for-hire entrepreneurs. Sure, you don’t have to join, but just like with any other union, if you don’t you will likely suffer disadvantages. Taking the freedom out of a freedom-based idea, unionizing would change the entire face of app-based for-hire cars and would have implications for the app-based workforce going forward. For more inquiries in this legal area visit the Law Offices of Hugh Howerton.