Northwest labor press., December 18, 2015, Page 6, Image 6

PAGE 6 | December 18, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
...Uber wins in 3-2 City Council vote
From Page 1
the vehicle for the protection of
drivers and passengers. The new
ordinance also got rid of the
City’s mandate that 20 percent of
vehicle fleets be wheelchair ac-
cessible. And it imposed a new
rider fee of 50 cents per ride to
pay for enforcement — which
Novick acknowledges has been
less-than-robust in the past.
The ordinance mostly fol-
lowed the recommendations of
a citizen task force Novick
launched in January. Portland is
alternately praised and ridiculed
for its tradition of public
process. Normally, all stake-
holders are given some repre-
sentation on city task forces and
committees that affect them;
they’re supposed to hash out dif-
ferences and come up with pro-
posals everyone can live with.
But for the Private For-Hire
Transportation Innovation Task
Force, Novick appointed mem-
bers who had little familiarity
with the industry they were
about to overhaul. Taxi drivers
and companies were specifically
excluded, which prompted
protest from a coalition they
formed — the Transportation
Fairness Alliance. Immigrant
rights advocate Kayse Jama of
the Center for Intercultural Or-
ganizing was the only member
on the 11-member task force
who ostensibly represented the
interests of working people. And
Jama found himself a minority
of one on the business-heavy
committee. When the commit-
tee issued preliminary recom-
mendations, he wrote a dissent-
ing minority report, which was
ignored.
Sparks fly at City Council
Over several months, Portland’s
five-member City Council spent
dozens of hours in hearings
about the TNC issue, but the
sides stayed the same: At each
stage, Novick, Hales, and Dan
Saltzman sided with TNCs,
while Amanda Fritz and Nick
Fish voted against them.
“I never thought I would see
the day that Portland City Coun-
cil would operate like the Re-
publican-dominated Congress in
Washington, D.C.,” Fritz de-
clared before her final vote.
“Congress is known for allow-
ing industry to write its own reg-
ulations, rather than legislators
acting on behalf of their con-
stituents in the public interest.
Sadly, that day has arrived here
in Portland today.”
Fritz also blasted the process
used to draft the ordinance:
None of the workers most af-
fected had a seat on the task
force, and TNC lobbyists had
multiple private meetings with
Hales and Novick, while taxi
representatives did not.
“I feel so sad for my friends
in Union Cab, supported by the
Communication Workers of
America Local 7901,” Fritz
said. “You worked so hard to
win approval. You offer dozens
of immigrant families not only a
chance at the American Dream,
but an opportunity to belong to
an American union, part of the
united American Federation of
Labor movement. You achieved
the dream, in winning approval
of your franchise. And now the
majority of council is telling you
you’re an expendable casualty
in the free market — the free
market that is grinding the
working class and the middle
class into the servants of the bil-
lionaire corporations.”
Since April, when Portland
allowed TNCs to operate in a
test run of full legalization,
TNCs have taken a majority of
the private for-hire transporta-
tion market, though the market
has also grown quite a bit.
Uber’s new Portland general
manager Bryce Bennett told
City Council the company had
facilitated 1 million rides as of
November, and has nearly 5,000
active drivers and an office in
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“I feel so sad for my friends in Union Cab. You worked so
hard to win approval. You offer dozens of immigrant
families not only a chance at the American Dream, but
an opportunity to belong to an American union…. And
now the majority of Council is telling you you’re an ex-
pendable casualty in the free market – the free market
that is grinding the working class and the middle class
into the servants of the billionaire corporations.”
— Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz
the Lloyd District.
Seattle ordinance letting Uber
drivers unionize to come
On Dec. 14, Seattle City Coun-
cil passed by unanimous vote an
ordinance that gives TNC driv-
ers a way to engage in collective
bargaining — even though as
independent contractors they’re
not covered by the National La-
bor Relations Act. The ordi-
nance — backed by Teamsters
Local 117 and the King County
Labor Council — makes the
City list of licensed TNC drivers
available to groups that want to
organize them, and then requires
city-permitted TNCs to bargain
terms and conditions if drivers
vote for representation.
“That strikes me as a really
groovy idea,” Novick told the
Labor Press by phone Dec. 11,
before the vote. “I promise you
that by September I will intro-
duce an ordinance on collective
bargaining modeled on Seat-
tle’s.”
But Novick said his attention
will shift first to getting a gas tax
passed, with funds to be dedi-
cated to fixing Portland streets
and making them safer.