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US: Uber and Lyft have a powerful new enemy in Washington

By  |  May 22, 2016

In a speech Thursday at the annual conference of the New America think tank in Washington, D.C., Warren slammed ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft for undermining the economic safety net of worker protections built over the last century.

The senator noted that everything from minimum wage and workplace safety laws to the 40-hour workweek, the right to unionize, and antitrust regulations created a system in which, between 1935 and 1980, the bottom 90% of Americans by wealth got 70% of all income growth.

But, she said, the last 30 years have seen those protections come under relentless attack. And she places the “gig economy” in general—and Uber and Lyft in particular—as the most recent weapon in the war against low- and middle-income workers.

“The much-touted virtues of flexibility, independence, and creativity offered by gig work might be true for some workers under some conditions,” Warren said, “but for many, the gig economy is simply the next step in a losing effort to build some economic security in a world where all the benefits are floating to the top 10%.”

Full Content: Financial Times

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