Title is misleading: no company has made any deal with any union. This is legislation to reduce insurance coverage in exchange for limited rights to unionize.
This is per-sector negotiation, affecting all rideshare companies, with qualified unions (that seem to only include SEIU) over wages, leaves, dismissals, and health insurance but not fares, that reduces uninsured insurance coverage from $1M to 300K (thus shifting the burden to drivers and passsengers).
Uber sought the deal after recent court rulings showed prop 22 (costing $100M's) wasn't the complete bar they'd hoped against the unions. SEIU may have gotten the deal in exchange for supporting prop 50 (redistricting to counter Texas). Governor Newsom is eager to play middleman-advocate for both business and labor.
> with qualified unions (that seem to only include SEIU)
Unlike other states, the SEIU is the most powerful unions and political players in California.
Senator Laphonza Butler used to be SEIU leadership [0], and SEIU endorsements can make or break political careers, like endorsing Kamala Harris for CA AG back in 2010 [1]. They are also one of the largest lobbyists in CA state politics [2][3]
You cannot hold public office in California without SEIU backing.
I've had mixed experiences with them. Back in HS during the Obama 1 years, one teacher was notoriously grabby with girls and another ended up shacking up with one of their students right when she turned 18 and she spent a significant amount of time with him during her younger years despite her not being an AP Calc BC student like the rest of us and only in Algebra 2 by senior year.
Both teachers had an open history of sexual predation amongst us students, but when it came to a head, our teacher's union (an SEIU local who's leadership alumni are now very prominent in CA and national DNC politics) transferred the former to another HS and ended the latters contract but didn't touch his pension. Our local Safeway was an SEIU shop too, and they made all the students working there part-time students pay union dues but wouldn't given them union benefits or say in union matters, and the SEIU leadership at that Safeway would always prioritize the longer lasting members of the union, and would segregate the agreements and spaces.
The tech giants only capitulated because they think that there is a reasonable chance physical drivers will be unnecessary in the near future, thus making all of this a moot point.
This wouldn't have happened before Waymo's demonstrable successes.
The point of companies is to provide value to customers, not employ employees. We are all customers. We all benefit from better services and lower prices. Anything that degrades either of those ambitions should not be celebrated.
“California lawmakers announced the agreement in late August, paving a path for ride-hailing drivers to unionize as labor wanted, in exchange for the state drastically reducing expensive insurance coverage mandates protested by the companies.”
What did the insurance cover? (Also, were AV insurance standards also reduced for Uber and Lyft?)
Excess liability from drivers with insufficient insurance (the driver’s themselves would still be liable here, but unlikely able to pay; the ridesharing firms having overlapping liability and an insurance mandate means that there is a stronger guarantee of some ability to pay where damage occurs.)
> (Also, were AV insurance standards also reduced for Uber and Lyft?)
California’s separate AV insurance mandate is on the manufacturer, and is not impacted.
Labor agreements in tech are soooo difficult to monitor. How do you collectively bargain around stock options, or remote work policies, or the pace of AI automation? The traditional labor playbook doesn't really apply here.
I'm a software engineer who has been part of a union bargaining committee, albeit at a non-profit media organization. I've known many engineers who have done it at for-profit organizations.
"How do you collectively bargain around stock options?"
Same as collectively bargaining over base comp?
"remote work policies"
My union contract guarantees me and all other software devs in my shop remote work for the life of the contract.
"pace of AI automation"
My union contract requires bargaining over any mandatory use of of AI. So far, there haven't been any major disagreements with management over this. At other workplaces in my union, management has had worse ideas.
These aren’t “in tech” in the sense you seem to be thinking of it; from the article:
California lawmakers announced the agreement in late August, paving a path for ride-hailing drivers to unionize as labor wanted, in exchange for the state drastically reducing expensive insurance coverage mandates protested by the companies. It earned rare public support from Gov. Gavin Newsom and received final approval from state lawmakers this week.
Lets not forget the hometown of the UAW was Flint, MI. Detroit used to be the richest city in the US by a very significant margin; now most car factories aren't even in Michigan. People may claim otherwise but good employees don't want to work for unions because it limits career growth and innovation, while companies don't want to deal with an adversarial unit within the company. Any private sector unionization is bad, even if this is just going after rideshare drivers now.
This is the opposite of what's true. Unionization is good. What's not good is using slavery adjacent labor to undercut good paying jobs in the US. US trade policy destroyed Detroit.
Nobody wants to go back to the bad old days of 16 hour days in the factory just to live with 16 other people a tenament and then die broke in a gutter when the machine takes your hand off.
Detroit used to be one of the most-industrialized places on Earth, behind only Germany. Like programming or financial services today, 100 years ago it was considered a privilege to work in a manufacturing.
You can ask any economist what happened. They won't blame unions, they'll blame the proliferation of industrialized economies. America cannot compete in a world where poverty-labor outperforms America's standard-of-living.
I take it you don't know anyone that works for the UAW if you think people dislike them?
Yeah they could be better, but people are overjoyed when they are able to get into UAW work because it means they won't have to struggle to survive anymore.
w10-1|5 months ago
Title is misleading: no company has made any deal with any union. This is legislation to reduce insurance coverage in exchange for limited rights to unionize.
This is per-sector negotiation, affecting all rideshare companies, with qualified unions (that seem to only include SEIU) over wages, leaves, dismissals, and health insurance but not fares, that reduces uninsured insurance coverage from $1M to 300K (thus shifting the burden to drivers and passsengers).
Uber sought the deal after recent court rulings showed prop 22 (costing $100M's) wasn't the complete bar they'd hoped against the unions. SEIU may have gotten the deal in exchange for supporting prop 50 (redistricting to counter Texas). Governor Newsom is eager to play middleman-advocate for both business and labor.
alephnerd|5 months ago
Unlike other states, the SEIU is the most powerful unions and political players in California.
Senator Laphonza Butler used to be SEIU leadership [0], and SEIU endorsements can make or break political careers, like endorsing Kamala Harris for CA AG back in 2010 [1]. They are also one of the largest lobbyists in CA state politics [2][3]
You cannot hold public office in California without SEIU backing.
I've had mixed experiences with them. Back in HS during the Obama 1 years, one teacher was notoriously grabby with girls and another ended up shacking up with one of their students right when she turned 18 and she spent a significant amount of time with him during her younger years despite her not being an AP Calc BC student like the rest of us and only in Algebra 2 by senior year.
Both teachers had an open history of sexual predation amongst us students, but when it came to a head, our teacher's union (an SEIU local who's leadership alumni are now very prominent in CA and national DNC politics) transferred the former to another HS and ended the latters contract but didn't touch his pension. Our local Safeway was an SEIU shop too, and they made all the students working there part-time students pay union dues but wouldn't given them union benefits or say in union matters, and the SEIU leadership at that Safeway would always prioritize the longer lasting members of the union, and would segregate the agreements and spaces.
As such, I'm not hopeful about this compromise.
[0] - https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-10-16/laphonza-b...
[1] - https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-laphonza-butler-2...
[2] - https://calmatters.org/data/2025/04/california-lobbying-spen...
[3] - https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/11/california-lobbying-...
korse|5 months ago
This wouldn't have happened before Waymo's demonstrable successes.
gnulinux996|5 months ago
That seems to me an attempt to discredit union movements. Will you be explaining where are you getting this information from?
JumpCrisscross|5 months ago
philipallstar|5 months ago
canada_dry|5 months ago
But... I wouldn't want to be an outlier i.e. serious injuries. That would require suing the driver that has few/no assets.
Uber/Lyft sure as hell ain't going to let you sue them for a dime.
JumpCrisscross|5 months ago
What did the insurance cover? (Also, were AV insurance standards also reduced for Uber and Lyft?)
dragonwriter|5 months ago
Excess liability from drivers with insufficient insurance (the driver’s themselves would still be liable here, but unlikely able to pay; the ridesharing firms having overlapping liability and an insurance mandate means that there is a stronger guarantee of some ability to pay where damage occurs.)
> (Also, were AV insurance standards also reduced for Uber and Lyft?)
California’s separate AV insurance mandate is on the manufacturer, and is not impacted.
jameslk|5 months ago
guywithahat|5 months ago
thisisnotauser|5 months ago
[deleted]
selinkocalar|5 months ago
bwestergard|5 months ago
"How do you collectively bargain around stock options?"
Same as collectively bargaining over base comp?
"remote work policies"
My union contract guarantees me and all other software devs in my shop remote work for the life of the contract.
"pace of AI automation"
My union contract requires bargaining over any mandatory use of of AI. So far, there haven't been any major disagreements with management over this. At other workplaces in my union, management has had worse ideas.
dragonwriter|5 months ago
California lawmakers announced the agreement in late August, paving a path for ride-hailing drivers to unionize as labor wanted, in exchange for the state drastically reducing expensive insurance coverage mandates protested by the companies. It earned rare public support from Gov. Gavin Newsom and received final approval from state lawmakers this week.
guywithahat|5 months ago
breakyerself|5 months ago
Nobody wants to go back to the bad old days of 16 hour days in the factory just to live with 16 other people a tenament and then die broke in a gutter when the machine takes your hand off.
bigyabai|5 months ago
You can ask any economist what happened. They won't blame unions, they'll blame the proliferation of industrialized economies. America cannot compete in a world where poverty-labor outperforms America's standard-of-living.
triceratops|5 months ago
Tell that to any movie star, director, writer, NFL starting quarterback, soccer star...
AngryData|5 months ago
Yeah they could be better, but people are overjoyed when they are able to get into UAW work because it means they won't have to struggle to survive anymore.