U.N. Women’s Group Dumps Uber Deal After Union Complaints
Source: Recode
By Amy Schatz
A United Nations organization for gender equality and empowerment of women said it is not interested in collaborating with online taxi service Uber. Uber said last week that it would partner with U.N. Women to create one million jobs for women as Uber drivers by 2020.
“U.N. Women will not accept an offer to collaborate in job creation with Uber,” Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in a YouTube video uploaded by trade union federation Public Services International on Wednesday. The reversal came just a few days after the women’s group received a letter from a number of union groups blasting the partnership.
“By classifying drivers as ‘independent contractors,’ Uber denies them basic protections, from minimum wage pay to health care and other benefits on the job,” the groups said. “Women already make up a high proportion of the precarious workforce, and increasing informal, piecemeal work contributes significantly to women’s economic dis-empowerment and marginalization across the globe.”
Update: In a statement, Uber said it was “proud to sponsor the U.N. Women event last week, and we share their vision of accelerating economic opportunity for women globally.” The company said it will be “seeking advice from U.N. Women and groups around the world on the best way to achieve the important goal of economic equality and opportunity for women.”
AMY SCHATZ
SENIOR EDITOR, TECH POLICY bio below
Also see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141044940
Read more: http://recode.net/2015/03/21/u-n-womens-group-dumps-uber-deal-after-union-complaints/
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Amy Schatz bio
Amy Schatz will focus on tech policy issues from Washington, D.C., including the Federal Communications Commission, privacy and legislative issues. She most recently covered implementation of the Affordable Care Act for the Wall Street Journal, where she was a reporter for a decade, covering tech policy from 2005 through 2012.
Before joining the Journal, Amy covered Dell for the Austin American-Statesman. She wrote about Austin Internet start-ups in 1999 and, a year later, began writing about bankruptcy court, where most of those startups landed. She began her reporting career in a bureau of the St. Petersburg Times.
A native Hoosier, Amy graduated from Indiana University and received an MBA from Georgetown University in 2012.
