After this weekend’s string of protests against Emperor Cheeto’s Muslim ban, you may have noticed #deleteuber trending on Twitter and Instagram. So like, why exactly are people boycotting Uber (aside from surge pricing, which is one of the most egregious abuses of power since whatever Trump did last)?
It all starts with the protests at JFK airport, which you either attended or feel like you attended because of how much it took up your newsfeed. Well, tbh it actually starts with Uber’s long history of being fucked up to its customers and workers, but for the sake of this article we’ll say it started at JFK.
On Saturday night, as protesters flooded the airport (btw you know shit is bad when people are willingly going to JFK airport) the Taxi Worker’s Allianced organized a one-hour strike in solidarity with the protesters by suspending all service at JFK. Considering 95% of taxi drivers in NYC are Muslim immigrants, you can see why they’d be pissed.
Uber, on the other hand, saw the protests as an opportunity to make a fuckload of money and continued to send its drivers (who are also majority Muslim) to the airport, even dropping their surge pricing in order to encourage people to use their service. In the world of unions, this is called “strike breaking” and is basically the equivalent of accidentally liking an ex boyfriend’s new fiancée’s Insta from three years ago aka “a giant fuck up.”
Unfortunately for Uber, much like your ex boyfriend’s new fiancée will notice you liked her picture, people noticed that Uber failed to let its drivers participate in the strike. Those people couldn’t help but notice that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and President Donald Trump are actually kind of besties, with Kalanick serving on Trump’s economic advisory council.
Cue #deleteuber which encouraged people to fully delete their accounts with Uber (not just the app) and switch to Lyft or one of the many other ride sharing services that are now available. Lyft wasted literally 0 time capitalizing on this new development and shading Uber for their shitty practices by immediately pledging to donate $1 million over the next four years to the ACLU.
Uber backtracked immediately, flipping the fuck out and saying that they their actions were “not meant to break strike,” and rather that they were being nice and suspending the surge in support. Kalanick has since come out against the ban, saying Uber will pay any workers affected by the ban pro bono and that Kalanick “will talk to” Trump. Lol okay Mr. Uber, let’s see how that works out…
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