An Open Letter to Uber Board Members and Executives on Moving Uber Forward
With the recent departure of Travis Kalanick and many of his top deputies, Uber has an opportunity to move forward as an ethical company. You, as lead investors, have put out your recommendations for “Moving Uber Forward,” and your board has adopted the full set of recommendations in the report on corporate culture that it commissioned.
Those are good steps, but Uber’s stakeholders include a much larger group than private equity, venture capitalists, and other large investors. Making changes only at the corporate leadership level creates a dangerous likelihood that Uber’s sustained ethics challenges will resurface.
The best way for Uber to move forward is for the company to make real, transparent, and enforceable commitments to its drivers, its riders, and the communities in which it operates. A partnership with these constituencies has the potential to transform the company, and to hold Uber accountable to the higher standards to which it aspires.
We, the undersigned, offer the following as the type of commitments that would help Uber to transition from an ethically compromised corporation to a better business.
A responsible Uber would:
1. Respect and partner with local communities.
a. Share, with appropriate privacy safeguards, the data that communities need to understand and help shape Uber’s real impact on transportation and jobs as it moves into other forms of transportation,
b. Prioritize strengthening local transportation based on community priorities of equity and infrastructure investment, over preempting local decision-making; and
c. Pivot from adversarial to collaborative relationships with local governments — no Greyballing them.
2. Value drivers as much as shareholders.
a. End wage theft and commit to a living wage;
b. Share, with appropriate privacy safeguards, data with drivers, so that they can determine if they are being treated fairly;
c. Make payroll tax contributions to workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance and Social Security programs;
d. Comply with core labor standards like anti-discrimination laws and overtime pay;
e. Recognize and negotiate with the independent workers organizations that represent its drivers; and
f. Make ratings systems fair and transparent.
3. Honor riders.
a. Commit to transparent, fair pricing;
b. Safe equal service for all, especially communities of color and people with disabilities; and
c. Share the data that riders, regulators, and researchers need to hold Uber accountable to those values.
AFSCME, AFL-CIO
Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living
Center for Disability Rights
Center for Popular Democracy
Disability Rights and Education Fund
Harry Campbell, “The Rideshare Guy”
Indy Workers’ Guild
In the Public Interest
Jobs with Justice
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Local Progress
Madison Area Bus Advocates
Ms. Wheelchair Maryland 2016
National Council on Independent Living
National Employment Law Project
New York Taxi Workers Alliance, AFL-CIO
Partnership for Working Families
Pittsburgh United
Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Policylink
Puget Sound Sage
SumOfUs
Teamsters Local 117
Working Partnerships, USA
