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.

  • FMT99@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Great, just get the heck out of here with your gig market profiteering.

  • Aesculapius@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Good! Providing a cheap service at the cost of the staff doing the work is not acceptable.

    This is all just grandstanding anyway. They may leave, but likely they will just increase their rates.

    • TheBest@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. I envision them threatening to leave, but ultimately not taking the revue hit by raising prices for the end users.

      I don’t agree with profits over everything. I anticipate the public narrative blaming the drivers or politicians for them exiting the market, but in my opinion its their own corporate greed thats pushing them out. This is unfair and people shouldn’t be vilified for standing up for workers rights.

    • VentraSqwal@links.dartboard.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s like when Amazon threatened to leave NY when AOC was campaigning for higher minimum wage over there or whatever it was. I forget the exact details, but the point is that it ended up being a bluff and of course they stayed.

  • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “Allow us to exploit the labor or we will leave the market”

    Same excuse since the dawn of slavery

    • ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t keep up with Uber news, but do they still not consider their drivers to be actual employees, but rather 1099 workers? Either way that company can go to hell.

      Lyft too if they have the same attitude.

  • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Good. If business plan relies on exploiting workers, then it’s a garbage business plan & deserves to fail.

  • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Okay bye bye. It’s not like they suddenly take all the drivers and their cars with them. Are they forgetting what business they are in? All they do is match drivers with passengers. Some other scrappy startup can easily fill that gap when they leave. Uber became only big because of first mover advantage and cut throat capitalism. Their tech is not groundbreaking.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Hell, Uber isn’t even the only business in the “ride share” category at the moment.

      Most cities have at least one other similar business already.

  • Saneless@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    If every business in Ohio left that cried about some laws there wouldn’t be any left

    They never pass up profit, even if it’s less

  • steltek@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Conveniently, biking will be a good alternative again once the bike lane isn’t full of illegally parked rideshare cars.

    (Not from MN but Ubers are a plague for safe city biking where I am)

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Considering they are not really any cheaper than taxis, no biggie.

  • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    When scummy companies like that are really pissed off about a new policy, that policy is exactly the right thing to do.

  • tron@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    While I think this should pass, don’t hold your breath. Mayor Frey will probably veto it. He’s a very moderate, business friendly Democrat and our governor also vetoed a similar bill from the state legislature earlier this year. Right or wrong, they are concerned that any disruption of Uber/Lyft services would be extremely detrimental to people who depend on them. Public transportation in MN is really bad and this is one of the major ways people get around.

    • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Right or wrong, they are concerned that any disruption of Uber/Lyft services would be extremely detrimental to people who depend on them. Public transportation in MN is really bad and this is one of the major ways people get around.

      Having come from Iowa, the twin cities public transit is more than adequate for most commuters, and I strongly disagree with it being “really bad”. I’m honestly aghast at the suggestion that people might use Uber of Lyft with enough regularity to impact day-to-day commuting. My wife elects to use the public buses into downtown from the suburbs out of convenience, even though her work provides downtown parking if she wanted it. Not saying it’ll have NO impact, but frankly I don’t think it’ll have much of one.