Seattle Considers Measure to Let Uber and Lyft Drivers Unionize
On Monday, the Seattle City Council plans to vote on a proposed law to give freelance, on-demand drivers the right to collectively negotiate on pay and working conditions, a right historically reserved for regular employees. If the legislation is passed— and early indications are positive — the group they belong to, the App-Based Drivers Association, or ABDA, will become the first organization of on-demand contract workers in the United States to win an explicit right to unionize. If workers in other cities follow suit, it could spur a potential shift in the rights of American contract workers, one that could have lasting repercussions on Uber’s bottom line and $62.5 billion valuation. Uber has two potential legal arguments against the measure if it passes. The first is that federal law reigns supreme when it comes to organizing, rendering a city ordinance on the subject essentially null and void. The second is that collective bargaining by independent contractors would amount to illegal price-fixing under antitrust law.
See "Seattle Considers Measure to Let Uber and Lyft Drivers Unionize", Mike Isaac, Nick Wingfield and Noam Scheiber, New York Times, December 14, 2015