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US: Judge temporarily blocks law allowing Uber drivers to unionize

By  |  April 4, 2017

A federal judge in Seattle has temporarily blocked the city’s first-in-the-nation law that attempts to allow Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers to unionize.

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    The law, passed in 2015, had been scheduled to go into effect this week.

    Seattle’s law allows Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers — who are categorized as independent contractors, not employees — to form a union and collectively bargain for things like pay, benefits and working conditions.

    “The issues raised in this litigation are novel, they are complex, and they reside at the intersection of national policies that have been decades in the making,” U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik wrote in granting a preliminary injunction Tuesday, halting the law from going into effect. “The public will be well-served by maintaining the status quo while the issues are given careful judicial consideration as to whether the city’s well-meaning ordinance can survive the scrutiny our laws require.”

    Lasnik repeatedly stressed in his order that the hold should not be viewed as foretelling an ultimate court victory for the Chamber of Commerce.

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