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submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Lyft and Uber say they will leave Minneapolis if the mayor signs a minimum wage bill for drivers::Lyft and Uber threatened to stop doing business in Minneapolis after the city council adopted a new rule Thursday that would set a minimum wage for rideshare drivers.

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[-] grte@lemmy.ca 329 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oh no! Businesses whose 'innovation' is doing end runs around labour law, leaving? How sad.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 57 points 1 year ago

And whose business plan is to use VC money to undercut existing taxi services and drive them out of business so that they can increase prices to a profitable point (and beyond!).

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

I have little sympathy for the taxi companies. They were terrible at what they did for so long. I can still remember the last two taxi rides I had in my life.

Me stuck a 5 minute drive from work. Every cab company I call wants 40 dollars and only in cash. Why? Because it crossed a town and county line. It took 4 calls before I found one that would take plastic.

A year later going to the airport and I am fighting a migraine. No AC, cab was filthy, ads are blasting, and smelled. Hey can you turn off the advertisements? I can't. Buddy I have a really bad headache can you please turn it off? I can't do that. I will give you five dollars to turn it off. It goes off.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it wasn't like the taxi industry was all sunshine and flowers before Uber existed. I cheered them on in the fight for a while before realizing they weren't my champion but just wanted to replace the existing taxis with their own and had to hike up prices eventually because they were losing tons of money in the meantime.

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[-] Lopoloma@lemmy.world 219 points 1 year ago

Don't let the door hit you on your way out.

[-] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 161 points 1 year ago

If your business can't afford to pay a living wage it shouldn't exist.

[-] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 111 points 1 year ago

Uber was notorious for moving into and operating in certain cities illegally.

[-] veroxii@aussie.zone 53 points 1 year ago
[-] BlushedPotatoPlayers@sopuli.xyz 21 points 1 year ago

Not all, they were kicked out from Hungary - although that was less a victory of workers' rights rather than that of the taxi driver union.

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[-] Meltbox@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Yup. And now the founder is rich when he really should be in jail.

[-] Gazumi@lemmy.world 74 points 1 year ago

Bye bye Lyft. Bye bye Uber.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 66 points 1 year ago

Cool, Columbus Ohio’s bus system offers a subsidized version of Uber and while it sucks in service area the idea and price both make perfect sense for Minneapolis to adopt.

Rideshare apps aren’t the solution, effective and adaptive public transportation is. Public transit based rideshare is a great way to fill in the gaps of bus and train systems and to push them to fill their own gaps.

And when all else fails, unionized taxi services.

Sometimes Silicon Valley feels like the monorail man

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[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 59 points 1 year ago

I see no down side here. Taxi unions existed long before Uber and Lyft undercut the hell out of them.

[-] elscallr@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Those taxi unions had a monopoly in the areas they served (which was far smaller than Uber and Lyft's service area) and their prices reflected that.

If Uber and Lyft leave there's one thing sure to happen: a lot more people dying from being hit by drunk drivers.

This isn't a good thing any way you cut it.

[-] Skitburd@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

dog what

dude there are like... other rideshare apps

and taxis still exist

and Minneapolis has an effective (for America) transit system

there are so many options in place before breaking the law

and if paying a living wage is not possible for Uber or Lyft, maybe they shouldn't be in business

[-] BellaDonna@mujico.org 9 points 1 year ago

Honestly exactly this, if a business is impossible to exist without exploitation then it straight up shouldn't exist, and if that means our economy can't exist, it needs to be rethought so goods and services exist to be goods and services, and not a money making scam.

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[-] darthskull@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago

Wage slavery is an unacceptable form of drunk driving prevention.

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[-] obinice@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago

Good.

Move out of the way for employers willing to follow the law.

Also side note, why don't they already have a minimum wage mandated by nationwide law?! Do people not get basic human rights over there? What the actual fuck is wrong with these people?

If you took away our minimum wage we would topple the bloody government, and that's coming from England where we hardly get excited over anything. But, that would be an unprecedentedly evil, evil thing to do, with gigantic wide ranging negative effects across the whole nation the likes of which we've never seen.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 27 points 1 year ago

We do have nationwide minimum wage. These companies get around it though because they drivers are "contract workers" not employees of the company. In every meaningful way, this is bullshit. It let's them not be required to pay the workers though.

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[-] Holyginz@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago

This mindset of catering to companies is infuriating. They took the risk creating the business, if they are no longer able to afford to pay wages or have competitive prices they don't deserve to remain open. That's the whole fucking point of the free market. Let these companies fail, the country and the economy will recover and new companies that fill current niches and needs will pop up.

[-] negativeyoda@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

These companies bled investor money for years acquiring market share with their long term viability plan being that self driving cars were around the corner. They've been waiting to fire all the drivers but they got grifted by Elon types into thinking self driving tech was imminent.

They didn't think they'd still have to pay people. Those salaries were supposed to be a temporary loss leader

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[-] netchami@sh.itjust.works 41 points 1 year ago

Oh no, there will be small local taxi companies instead of some random multi-million dollar corporations, how bad! And people won't have to download their trashy apps that are filled with trackers.

[-] macrocephalic@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

I actually think the app was the best part of Uber (not necessarily the Uber app, but the concept). In my city it used to be annoying to catch a taxi; you either had to line up at a rank, or call and wait and hope that your taxi turned up. Apps allowed you to order a car to wherever you were - normally with just a few minutes notice. I rarely use either now but I believe that taxis have comparable options now.

[-] netchami@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

I prefer apps too, but I don't want to install corporate spyware on my phone, just to call a taxi. Thankfully both Uber and Lyft have pretty good web apps, and never have to let them touch my phone.

[-] theostermanweekend@lemmy.ml 40 points 1 year ago

If y'all can pay a living wage, y'all can't do business. Tired of this shit.

[-] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

I think we should seize all of Lyft and Ubers assets and use them to construct actual public transportation in USA

[-] Buffalobuffalo@reddthat.com 28 points 1 year ago

What assets? All they have is debt and maybe some servers. I guess the app and brand has some value, but only to another ride share company.

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[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

They don't own the cars, they don't hire employees. We'd be left with an app? Some servers? We don't need that stuff to run a decent public transportation service.

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[-] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 year ago

Oh no!

Anyway...

[-] kungfuratte@feddit.de 25 points 1 year ago

So the law works.

[-] Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 year ago

Fuck uber. Fuck lyft. We'd be better off if they didn't exist. Destroyed livelihoods so silicon valley could seem like they were doing something and not just thieving from people.

[-] xthexder@l.sw0.com 21 points 1 year ago

Uber prices in some cities are absolutely insane. Seattle for example: Right now a ride to the airport from where I am is 13 miles / 25 minute drive. Uber is quoting $51 at 10am on a Friday. Minneapolis' new minimum wage would only be $20.47. Even if the driver came all the way from the airport, that would still only be $41. Somehow I doubt all that money is going to the drivers right now.

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[-] average650@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

Oh no..... Anyway....

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 15 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Lyft and Uber threatened to stop doing business in Minneapolis after the city council adopted a new rule Thursday that would set a minimum wage for rideshare drivers.

In recent years, states and cities have attempted to pass legislation regarding the growing “gig economy,” or freelance work through apps like Uber and Grubhub, but have generally met with fierce opposition.

Lyft, according to a statement sent to CNN Thursday, said the bill would be detrimental to drivers, who would ultimately earn less, “because prices could double and only the most wealthy could still afford a ride.”

“This ordinance stands to significantly impact our city in terms of worker protections, public safety, disability rights, and transportation mode shift goals,” he said.

In recent years, states have attempted to pass legislation regarding the growing “gig economy,” or freelance work through apps like Uber and Grubhub.

In June, New York City announced a new minimum pay-rate for app food delivery workers amid the rise in use of services like Uber Eats and DoorDash since the pandemic.


The original article contains 587 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Would hurt drivers and only the wealthy could drive… let me fix that too it will cut into all my profits and I won’t be able to overcharge common people as easily and simultaneously commit wage theft against the driver.

[-] Conyak@lemmy.tf 15 points 1 year ago

Bye! If you can’t pay a living wage you can’t afford to be in business.

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hopefully this turns out better than the statewide bill that the governor vetoed earlier this year. It looks like they went with the same mileage payments, which is a good thing. The statewide bill was vetoed due to handicapped transportation services in MN having partnerships with Uber. I wrote to the governor about it, this is going to a committee to quote "find the best solution". Unfortunately I don't have high hopes to see it reintroduced. Gig workers need a minimum standard of labor protections.

Edit: I missed the fact that this is a twin cities ordinance. Fucking good, the metro council should be expanding transportation services to make uber irrelevant.

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[-] Newstart@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago
[-] demesisx@infosec.pub 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Probably a very unpopular thing to say: It would be interesting to see a middleman-free, decentralized version of Lyft/Uber where payments and ride-hailing are done with crypto and blockchain/smart contracts, driver ID's using using DID's, anonymized on-chain using homomorphic encryption. The hardest problem that I forsee with that tech is with dispute resolution. The idea stems from the opinion that the gig economy is great but the real problem (in matters not related to conflict resolution) is that the middleman takes a huge cut of the fare in exchange for doing almost nothing.

[-] DudePluto@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

I'd be curious to see which would be more practical: a decentralized version of Lyft/Uber powered by blockchain, or an employee-owned version of Lyft/Uber where workers keep all their earnings and pay a small portion for administrative fees to keep the app running.

Admittedly I'm always skeptical of blockchain's ability to actually solve problems. But maybe it would have fewer infrastructural costs? Who knows

[-] demesisx@infosec.pub 12 points 1 year ago

Great points!

The reason I jump to recommending crypto rather than a co-op (I'm actually a libertarian-socialist and am a big fan of co-ops) is that, unless you make it impossible for people to be corrupt through public ledgers and DAO's, they eventually WILL take the opportunity to be corrupt.

If implemented correctly, crypto can be harnessed as a technology that makes corruption IMPOSSIBLE.

IMO, it gets a bad rap because of bad actors and the public's misinterpretation of the power structures of sketchy, centralized implementations of the tech (like Luna and FTX). However, a truly decentralized, open source chain could definitely be the backbone to a truly trust-less, truly decentralized version of this. If you really look into it, the more decentralized a crypto project, the more it can be trusted.

For me, the best trust metric that seems to hold strong over the years is initial token allocation.

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[-] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

Good. Leave.

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

Bye have a beautiful time! 👋

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this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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