Did Uber Break Taxi Strike Over Trump Immigration Order?

Bloomberg BNA discusses regulations on ridesharing drivers with Iain Murray. 

Iain Murray, vice president for strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Uber drivers are small business operators who should have the freedom to determine on their own whether to fill the gap left by taxi drivers’ absence. “You have to let each individual businessman come to their own conclusion about what their reactions is to something so political,” he told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 30.

“If they want to not serve people who are their day-to-day customers in protest of other people’s actions, then good. Go ahead and do that. That’s a good way to lose market share,” he said. “I don’t know what the taxi alliance’s justification was for essentially taking it out on the innocent travelers.”

“It’s not shocking that Uber would put greed above social principles,” New York Taxi Workers Alliance Executive Director Bhairavi Desai said in a statement provided to Bloomberg BNA Jan. 30. “It does that to drivers every day.”

Uber pledged to create a $3 million legal defense fund and support for drivers outside the U.S. who are affected by the travel order. “It would be interesting to see whether the taxi alliance is doing the same,” Murray said.

Read the full article at Bloomberg BNA.