Email from San Francisco Symphony last night touts a partnership with.....Uber. "Ride with Uber and support the Symphony at the same time!" says the subject line.
I. Don't. Think. So.
SFS might not realize that Uber is widely detested, considered anti-labor (remember, they tried to pretend that their drivers aren't employees), and considered a very bad symbol of the so-called "sharing" economy.
As an organization whose major assets are the unionized musicians, in a city known for its leftist politics, the orchestra might want to think about who they might attract and who they might drive away with this so-called partnership.
I'm certainly not going to touch it. I get to SFS from the east bay using a combination of car, AC Transit bus, and/or BART, and it's going to stay that way.
https://twitter.com/billmon1/status/651968916256890880
ReplyDeleteAhahaha! I get to call Godwin on you.
ReplyDeleteClickable version of that link, since Blogger is too stupid to make it clickable:
https://twitter.com/billmon1/status/651968916256890880
Not that I don't agree with the controversial nature of Uber's labor practices, but are they any more detested (or detestable) than your typical corporate sponsors, like banks and airlines? On the former, are their business practices really worse than corporate behemoths that pay close to no taxes and arguably played the single biggest part in the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depession? I could imagine SF might be a bit different, but I assure you Uber would be a lot less widely detested in New York than, say, Bank of America or United Airlines...which is not to suggest it doesn't matter, but rather that the problem may be a lot more systemic about funding the arts generally.
ReplyDeleteProbably not more detestable, no: because they're new, with a newish business model, Uber doesn't blend into the sinkhole of corporate horror as well as banks and airlines.
ReplyDeleteAs you note, the banks can bring down an economy, but Uber can't.