Monday, January 30, 2017

Why You Should Delete Uber



On Saturday night, in response to Trump's Nazi-esque ban on Muslim immigrants, the New York cabbies did a one hour work stoppage at the JFK airport. While it was just one hour, it was enough to cause a certain amount of pandemonium.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick decided to not honor the strike and sent in his drivers. When they experienced an immediate backlash for not respecting the basic human and civil rights being violated by the ban, he also angered the unions by not respecting the strike.

Uber tried to explain it all away by pointing out they didn't engage their price gouging practice due to the higher level of demand. Gee, how bigly of them.

Still feeling the heat, Uber came out with even more bigly moves to try to control the self-inflicted damage:
So it’s important that as a community that we do everything we can to help these drivers. Here’s what Uber will do:

- Provide 24/7 legal support for drivers who are trying to get back into the country. Our lawyers and immigration experts will be on call 24/7 to help.
- Compensate drivers for their lost earnings. This will help them support their families and put food on the table while they are banned from the US;
- Urge the government to reinstate the right of U.S. residents to travel - whatever their country of origin - immediately;
- Create a $3 million legal defense fund to help drivers with immigration and translation services.
Now, being the union thug that I am, my first suggestion would be to honor the strike and cool your heels. Failing that, I would have suggested using the public transit system, but they would probably be honoring the strike, which goes back to cooling your heels. It's only an hour, for crying out loud.

Now, I know some people might be thinking, "So what if they violated the strike, it was only an hour. And so what if they don't have any respect for human rights, civil rights or even the Constitution, I still have to get to the club/gym/mall/whatever. Why should I stop using Uber? They did try to make things right."

Well, if the gentle reader just so happens to be one of those people, let me make it easier for you.

Kalanick is a big Trump guy and has even joined Trump's administration as an economic advisor. If you're going to spend your hard earned money for a ride, do you really want it going to supporting Trump's fascist agenda?

Being the union thug that I am, my first suggestion would be to use the public transit system. Bus drivers are unionized and it will help the community because increased ridership means increased funding.

If for some reason, one just can't use public transit, might I point out that the founders of Lyft took an entirely different approach to Trump's Naziism? They not only issued a strongly worded condemnation of Trump's actions but also pledged $1 million to the ACLU who is fighting it in court and winning.
If I had to spend money on a ride, I'd rather it going to the people fighting fascism and not those supporting it.

Whatever your reasoning is, please, just do the right thing and delete uber off your phone and do it now.

2 comments:

  1. Uber's expressed business goal is to completely eliminate human drivers and deploy a fleet of robotic cars to take their place.
    The electronics will have no problem crossing borders and wont be bothered by pesky payroll taxes.
    If I had to spend money on a ride I'd rather it go to people. Any people.

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  2. Oh..and we can't forget that UBER announced its plans to lower rates AFTER the strike was supposed to end. Uber tweeted at 7:30ish whereas the strike was announced as a 6-7 thing. Hate for hate...the liberal agenda is spewing cognitive dissonance left and right...its pretty embarrassing for anyone really paying attention.

    ReplyDelete