Where do people here come down on Uber et. al.?

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. I love my state's approach on it

they are mulling over making them treat contractors as employees, subject to minimum wage and all that.

and the labor board did this...

That might sound like a mundane bureaucratic distinction, but it’s a concrete reality for the drivers, personal shoppers and lunch deliverers who enjoy the flexibility of setting their own hours but do not get standard employee benefits like overtime pay and worker’s compensation. In California, unlike most other states, employers are explicitly on the hook for reimbursing employees for all expenses necessary to do the job. And if the workers like Berwick win their cases, there are more than 15,000 other drivers in San Francisco alone who might want to be reimbursed too.

“Uber has essentially shifted to its workers all the costs of running a business, the costs of owning a car, maintaining a car, paying for gas,” says Shannon Liss-Riordan, a Boston-based attorney who has a class-action case pending against Uber in California federal court. “Uber has saved massive amounts …. It’s important that the labor laws be enforced so that the companies can’t take advantage of workers that way. Uber’s a $50-billion company and I think it can afford to bear the responsibilities of an employer.” She expects her trial will be underway by next year and will make arguments for class certification later this summer, saying this ruling “could be a lot of help.”

http://time.com/3924941/uber-california-labor-commission-ruling/

It's been grand but the model of letting your "contractors" pay for all while you skim the profits, I think, will come to an end. Uber and Lyft are also at threat of geting kicked out of France and the rest of the EU

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/europe/france-paris-uberpop-protests/

They are out of Spain

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2867163/Uber-banned-Spain-Popular-taxi-service-app-barred-judge-just-day-thrown-New-Delhi.html

And even American cities are going, NO MORE

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2015/04/01/uber-done-in-san-antonio-could-make-comeback-after.html

And buzzfeed has a very comprehensive list

San Antonio
Los Angeles and San Francisco
Portland, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Boston, Massachusetts
Nevada
Pennsylvania (except for Philadelphia)
Philadelphia
Jacksonville, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Broward County, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Colorado
South Carolina
New York City
Illinois
Fairfield County, Connecticut

http://www.buzzfeed.com/johanabhuiyan/here-is-where-uber-and-lyft-are-facing-regulation-battles-in#.ts99LyjVmb

So this is now a real battle, Do we keep this sharing economy which is the end stage in my view of capitalism with rules and regulations meant to protect workers rolled back on legal fictions, or do we fight back?