The lobbying of Uber should, along with those of other corporate giants, only surprise those prone to pollyannaish escapism.\u00a0 Its hungry, desperate behaviour takes place in plain sight, and denials merely serve to emphasise the point.\u00a0 It resembles, in some crudely distant way, the operating rationale of the notorious British sex pest Jimmy Savile, who preyed upon his victims with the establishment\u2019s complicity.<\/p>\n
In terms of the gig economy, there are few more ruthless buccaneers than this San Franciscan ride-share company that has persistently specialised in cutting corners and remaking them.\u00a0 Those taken aback by the latest leaked files<\/a> about Uber\u2019s conduct would do well to remember the initial stages of the company\u2019s growth, and the protests against it.\u00a0 Globally, the taxi fraternity raged against the encroachment of this new, seemingly amorphous bully.\u00a0 Some authorities heeded their wishes, seeing an alternative option in transportation.<\/p>\n In September 2017, Transport for London refused to renew the company\u2019s license, accusing<\/a> the company of lacking \u201ccorporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications.\u201d\u00a0 For all such rowdy, boisterous resistance, the company continued to spread its tentacular reach, inculcating users and drivers with ratings, incessant surveillance and behavioural observation.<\/p>\n The Uber leaks give us ringside seats to the decision making of the company.\u00a0 Files numbering some 124,000 spanning the period between 2013 to 2017, were leaked to The Guardian<\/em> and found their way to 180 journalists across 29 countries through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).\u00a0 These include<\/a> the savoury essence of over 83,000 emails, iMessages and WhatsApp messages exchanged between then CEO Travis Kalanick and various company executives.<\/p>\n The ICIJ brings out a big gun from the off.\u00a0 In 2015, France\u2019s taxi drivers showed their incensed displeasure with the company by setting fire to tyres, overturning cars and blocking access to airports.\u00a0 The result of the protest was initially significant, leading<\/a> to a suspension of the company\u2019s operations and a nationwide ban.\u00a0 \u201cNeeding a friend in government to smooth things over,\u201d states<\/a> the ICIJ with gotcha confidence, \u201cUber\u2019s chief European lobbyist sought help from a young French minister on the rise: Emmanuel Macron.\u201d<\/p>\n They had good reason to feel plucky.\u00a0 Mark MacGann, the lobbyist in the question, is found sending a text<\/a> to the then French economy minister on October 21, 2015 expressing concern about the ban.\u00a0 \u201cCould you ask your cabinet to help us to understand what is going on?\u201d\u00a0 Macron promises to \u201clook into this personally\u201d and urges \u201ccalm at this stage\u201d.<\/p>\n Within hours, the suspension order was being reconsidered.\u00a0 \u201cThe local government in Bouches du Rhones will modify its decision and press release to clean up the statements that set off such confusion,\u201d a relieved and grateful MacGann informs Macron.\u00a0 \u201cThank you for your support.\u201d\u00a0 Macron expresses his own gratitude for the company\u2019s \u201cmeasured response.\u201d<\/p>\n This picture, according to the leaked messages, emerges from some dozen undisclosed communications and, at the latest count, four meetings between representatives of Uber and Macron.\u00a0 It prompted French MP Aur\u00e9lien Tach\u00e9 to call it<\/a> \u201ca state scandal.\u201d\u00a0 Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of the left opposition party France Unbowed gave the perpetrator of the scandal an even better description.\u00a0 Macron had shown himself to be a lobbyist for a \u201cUS multinational aiming to permanently deregulate labour law\u201d.<\/p>\n The current French President is not the only one to have been taken in by the service.\u00a0 The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, had some advice to give the company.\u00a0 \u201cRight now you are seen as aggressive,\u201d he said with dreary triteness.\u00a0 His solution to Kalanick: \u201cChange the way people look at the company\u201d.\u00a0 Focus on the good.\u00a0 \u201cThis will make you seem cuddly.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the protests against Uber globally, both in terms of drivers and users, the company chewed over a strategy of reverse emphasis.\u00a0 The true problem, went this line of marketing, was the vicious, lazy, monopolising taxi driver.\u00a0 Along the way, the company could also discount the welfare of Uber drivers while extolling the merits of a more liberal marketplace hankering for transportation options.\u00a0 \u201cViolence,\u201d exhorted<\/a> Kalanick like the privateers of old, \u201cguarantee[s] success.\u201d<\/p>\n Spokesperson for Kalanick, Devon Spurgeon, comes close to degrading the old cabbies, suggesting that the Uber model was refreshingly competitive in the face of industry sclerosis.\u00a0 Kalanick and company, explained<\/a> Spurgeon to the ICIJ, \u201cpioneered an industry that has now become a verb.\u201d\u00a0 To do so required them to break a few eggs and rules on the way \u201cin an industry where competition had been historically outlawed.\u00a0 As a natural and foreseeable result, entrenched industry interests all over the world fought to prevent the much-needed development of the transportation industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps most revealingly of all, and typical of the East India Company ethos of this titan, was the delight company members found<\/a> in flouting laws and soiling regulations.\u00a0\u00a0 Its \u201cother than legal status\u201d was a point of constant excitement, notably in a range of countries from South Africa to Russia.\u00a0 In the uncoated words of Uber\u2019s head of global communications, Nairi Hourdajian, written<\/a> to a colleague in 2014 as attempts in Thailand and India to shut down the company were afoot,\u00a0 \u201cSometimes we have problems because, well, we\u2019re just fucking illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n The battles against Uber\u2019s corporate banditry continue, none more passionately and committedly waged than by the workers themselves.\u00a0 Uber drivers have managed to make a case in the Netherlands and the UK that they are protected by the jurisdiction\u2019s labour laws.<\/p>\n The same cannot be said about the United States, where freedom of contract and the tyranny of uneven pay prevail.\u00a0 As Joe Biden, well wooed by Kalanick as US Vice President, said in his adjusted 2016 speech at the World Economic Forum at Davos, there was a company able to give millions of workers \u201cfreedom to work as many hours as they wish, manage their own lives as they wish\u201d.\u00a0 The Uber cofounder was less enthused by the vice presidential vessel.\u00a0 \u201cEvery minute late [Biden] is,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in a text to a co-worker, \u201cis one less minute he will have with me.\u201d<\/p>\n The company\u2019s board can also rest easy in one respect.\u00a0 They have majority shareholder support to ensure that a lack of transparency regarding spending and lobbying activities will be permitted to continue.\u00a0 While the veil continues to operate, current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is also aggressively pursuing a policy of sprucing and cleaning the company\u2019s image.\u00a0 This pirate of transportation is turning cuddly.<\/p>The post Barely Legal: The Global Uber Enterprise<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The lobbying of Uber should, along with those of other corporate giants, only surprise those prone to pollyannaish escapism.\u00a0 Its hungry, desperate behaviour takes place in plain sight, and denials merely serve to emphasise the point.\u00a0 It resembles, in some crudely distant way, the operating rationale of the notorious British sex pest Jimmy Savile, who [\u2026]<\/p>\n The post Barely Legal: The Global Uber Enterprise<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[480,35,3732,51048],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740633,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740632\/revisions\/740633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}