Uber Got a Sweetheart Deal With One of Canada’s Biggest Unions
Uber’s recent deal with UFCW Canada, granting legal representation to the 100,000 workers employed by the ride-sharing app, is not as good as it seems. The agreement will allow Uber to circumvent trade union democracy and attack workers’ benefits.
It seems likely that a new agreement between UFCW Canada and Uber is simply a Trojan horse by which the company will seek to smuggle its gig work model into provincial legislatures. (Www.quotecatalog.com / Flickr)
On January 27, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and Uber made a surprise announcement. The largest private sector union in the country and the ride-hailing app had struck a deal granting over 100,000 workers access to representation while preserving “the flexibility of their work.”
Close inspection of the agreement reveals that the deal is not the victory for workers that it initially appeared to be. It is a victory for Uber and other platform apps. Under the agreement, Uber drivers will not actually become UFCW members; they will simply be able to access some representation in the case of disputes about pay and deactivation. Uber drivers will have no say in electing their representation. This violates the commitment to democracy fundamental to all trade unionism.
Uber Canada and UFCW also agreed to “press provincial governments to enact reforms that provide new benefits and preserve worker choice on when, where, and if to work.” Choice here is, of course, a euphemism for the special brand of casualization that Uber has excelled at marketing as freedom. Most recently, the company has created the term Flexible Work+ for its new regime of precarious employment.
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