this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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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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[–] [email protected] 328 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (63 children)

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

[–] Buddahriffic 58 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 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 218 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 162 points 1 year ago

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

[–] MataVatnik 111 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (10 children)

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 11 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 year ago
[–] Gazumi 73 points 1 year ago

Bye bye Lyft. Bye bye Uber.

[–] captainlezbian 66 points 1 year ago (6 children)

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 58 points 1 year ago (7 children)

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

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[–] obinice 50 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 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 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago

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

[–] reagansrottencorpse 29 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

Oh no!

Anyway...

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

So the law works.

[–] [email protected] 22 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.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

Bye Felicia

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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 18 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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!

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[–] rockSlayer 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

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

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