On Demand, and Demanding Their Rights

Gig workers in the Uber economy are organizing to win more say over their jobs—and writing a new chapter in American labor history.

Steven Greenhouse

Steven Greenhouse was a reporter at The New York Times for 31 years and was its labor and workplace reporter from 1995 to 2014. He is currently a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation. He is the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Time for the American Worker and is currently working on a book about the future of America's workers.

June 28, 2016

Travis Kalanick, Uber’s founder, recently recalled that when he first started the company seven years ago, “it was easy to communicate with the handful of drivers using the app.” Uber’s marketing manager called each of the drivers regularly, Kalanick said, “to get their feedback and make sure things were working well.”

Nowadays, Uber has far more than a handful of drivers—it has more than 400,000 in the United States alone, and many drivers complain that Uber’s managers no longer listen to them to make sure things are working well. “They do whatever they want,” said Bigu Haider, an Uber driver in New York who is furious at Uber over fare cuts and other moves that have reduced his income. “I don’t see any voice for the drivers.”

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Continua qui: http://prospect.org/article/demand-and-demanding-their-rights-0