ELI5: Why would you strike against Uber?
Uber is a for-profit company, not a charity. Its duty, first and foremost, is to increase the value for its investors (otherwise why would anyone invest in it?) If you are an Uber driver and your pay is very low, why are you driving for Uber? Why are you driving a cab? There are plenty of skilled jobs you can do that pay more. If you can’t get those jobs, it isn’t anyone’s fault you can’t acquire new skills. What makes you feel you are entitled to get paid more for the skill that every 15 year old has — driving cars?
Not everyone is in a place where they are able to gain new skills, and even if they are they still need a job in the meantime. Taxi drivers used to be able to support a family. Part of the issue is that Uber has a contractor relationship with their drivers but treats them as employees in several ways. Their pay has always gone down over the last few years which sucks if you, say, entered into a car lease as part of your plan to make a good side income driving rideshare. Also not advocating one side or another, but these are some of the issues involved. People who lose their jobs or see their pay cut due to automation or tech changes aren't just going to sigh and say "guess I should get a more employable skill", they're going to get upset first.
Also every Uber driver I've had is a lot better at driving than a 15 year old. It's not a college degree skill but it's more skilled than washing dishes.
Why stop with uber? Make every other company avoid minimum wage laws!! McDonald's, Supermarkets, Restaurants! If anyone goes on strike, tell them to aquire new skills! Specially in the US where it is soo easy and anyone can totally do it.
People don't strike against charities.... People on blind get so offended when a work force uses the tools at their disposal (organized strikes) to bargain in a free market for better wages but never get upset when companies use tools at their disposal ( millions of dollars of venture capital) to undersell laborers for cheaper labor. Its not entitlement its bargaining. Uber is not some good company just trying to provide a service and workers are these lazy entitled brats. Ubers business model is to subsist off venture capital long enough to price taxis and public transit out of the market and then they have a monopoly. Another interesting aspect about uber is they act like they are a platform for millions of free agents to sell their labor, but if that's the case, why can't uber drivers decide how much to charge. If uber is only a platform, then they're price fixing. If they're not a platform, they need to pay their employees. If they pay their employees they can't exist because their business model fundamentally doesn't make sense. And autonomous vehicles MIGHT be able to save them, but you won't see them on the road for at least 20 years.
Uber is losing money trying to pay the drivers. If you want to talk about exploitation, go after Facebook or something, they're making like $1.5M profit off each employee and paying them only a fraction of that, like $400k.
What the actual fuck? Paying half a million dollars is exploitation but minimum wage is not, as long as the business is losing money it's ok? If Uber can't afford to pay their drivers they should fold and stop wasting their investors' money
Nobody is making them drive
They are monopolizing the market using the tools they have. The drivers push back using the tools at their disposal like strikes. Im not informed well enough to be able to pick a side but it seems pretty clear that there is nothing drastically wrong in people using the the tools they have. That is the name of this game :)
I opened the apps and saw plenty of cars though