Uber's worst nightmare...

[Sherman A1]

In early 2012, on a visit to San Francisco, Shannon Liss-Riordan went to a restaurant with some friends. Over dinner, one of her companions began to describe a new car-hailing app that had taken Silicon Valley by storm. "Have you seen this?" he asked, tapping Uber on his phone. "It's changed my life."

Liss-Riordan glanced at the little black cars snaking around on his screen. "He looked up at me and he knew what I was thinking," she remembers. After all, four years earlier she had been christened "an avenging angel for workers" by the Boston Globe. "He said, 'Don't you dare. Do not put them out of business.'" But Liss-Riordan, a labor lawyer who has spent her career successfully fighting behemoths such as FedEx, American Airlines, and Starbucks on behalf of their workers, was way ahead of him. When she saw cars, she thought of drivers. And a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Four years later, Liss-Riordan is spearheading class-action lawsuits against Uber, Lyft, and nine other apps that provide on-demand services, shaking the pillars of Silicon Valley's much-hyped sharing economy. In particular, she is challenging how these companies classify their workers. If she can convince judges that these so-called micro-entrepreneurs are in fact employees and not independent contractors, she could do serious damage to a very successful business model—Uber alone was recently valued at $51 billion—which relies on cheap labor and a creative reading of labor laws. She has made some progress in her work for drivers. Just this month, after Uber tried several tactics to shrink the class, she won a key legal victory when a judge in San Francisco found that more than 100,000 drivers can join her class action.

"These companies save massively by shifting many costs of running a business to the workers, profiting off the backs of their workers," Liss-Riordan says with calm intensity as she sits in her Boston office, which is peppered with framed posters of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The bustling block below is home to two coffee chains that Liss-Riordan has sued. If the Uber case succeeds, she tells me, "maybe that will make companies think twice about steamrolling over laws."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/12/uber-lawsuit-drivers-class-action-shannon-liss-riordan

[jtuck004]

1. Good for her! About time. n/t

[Delver Rootnose]

2. Same thing sort of happened to..

Me as a 'merchandiser' (also know as plan schleper and unloader) for a perennial distributor for a large supermarket chain. They made the merchandisers all 'independent contractors' for the princely sum of an additional 25¢. They said oh everything will stay the same except you have to pay your own taxes. When I asked about workers comp. or unemployment or liability insurance etc. all of a sudden they didn't want to employ me.

This shit has been going on for a long time.

[Sherman A1]

4. It has indeed gone on for a long time

far, far too long. Perhaps the trend can be reversed.

[SylviaD]

3. Do we cheer simply because this lawyer uses the term "labor" in her justifications?

I see a 1%er looking for an easy mark, to make more in legal fees.

I use Uber...I see no unhappy drivers, no oppressed workers.

Progressives should laud companies like Uber and the concepts behind them - communal sharing of resources.

Not support this fat cat lawyer looking to take Uber down and enrich herself.

[roscoeroscoe]

5. Um

Maybe you don't know her

[handmade34]

6. maybe

the poster doesn't understand the impact of cheap labor/exploitation

[Skittles]

12. more likely doesn't give a fuck

[SylviaD]

13. Thank you for your psychological analysis of me...

...it must be quite a skill to know someone based on two posts you have read.

I could do the same, and give my opinion of you based on just one post of yours...but then this post would most likely be hidden by a jury.

[Skittles]

14. doesn't take a degree

[SylviaD]

7. I know several lawyers, and several Uber drivers. I'll play the percentages. n/t

[TBF]

16. And I know several republicans.

[Sophiegirl]

8. Maybe you should learn something about her

Before making a sweeping condemnation of her.

[link:http://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/profiles-strategies/2015/09/sledgehammer-shannon-the-attorney-taking-on-uber.html?page=all|

[Delver Rootnose]

9. And what about local....

...laws that regulate hire cars. To insure safety and fees etc etc. you do realize that uber bypasses that as well. What happens when someone gets killed by an uber driver. Uber certainly doesn't pay you know independent contractor and all.

There is more to this than just. Ooo new technology. There is a reason cab drivers have to take more driving tests and get licenses and medallions and all.

[chervilant]

10. I have a family member

who would disagree with you, and I'm confident he's not alone in his disappointment.

Perhaps, you might do a wee bit of research before you assert there are "no unhappy drivers, no oppressed workers."

[PDittie]

11. Really?

You see no unhappy drivers or oppressed workers?

That explains the Hillary avatar.

[FrodosPet]

15. I found the oppressed drivers for you

http://uberpeople.net/

[Yevlaf]

17. We all pay for Uber's unfair under the table advantage

The Independent Contractor scam is a growing form of economic pollution and cost shifting that we all will have to pay for some day. How many laws protect all of us as American workers? Only a few: Workers Compensation Insurance (in reality universal permanent health care but only if you get hurt at work as an employee), Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Minimum Wage... In Construction this scam vacuums billions out of workers pockets, unfairly burdens taxpayers and steals resources from the public tax, health care and insurance systems.
Uber eliminates all these protections by the simple act of defining their employees as Independent Contractors. We all know that as working "under the table". Uber employees assume the cost of their own protections- or work without protections at all. Uber has eliminated the cost of the social safety net all legitimate employers assume as a fair cost of doing business.
What happens to the Uber Driver at retirement? Did he or she make their quarterly social security payments or will we all contribute to their welfare payments?
When an Uber driver is hurt on the job who pays? Without workers Comp we all do, when an emergency room substitutes for a legitimate protected employee's injury.
If an Uber driver causes damage to a passenger or to another vehicle, is there commercial liability insurance in place or will a driver simply lose their assets (home, savings, credit)?
Employee status is the gold standard of work relationships. Without the simple protections mandated from an employer, families and workers are exposed in a way that destroys futures. That's just wrong. How hard would it be for the Uber app to add in those protections? Not hard at all. The legal protections workers receive by law are not optional. These legitimate benefits must be vigorously applied across all occupations. Nothing else in the law protects us all from the scam that underlies Uber and cheats us all.