Can Seattle Launch a Movement for a New Kind of Workers' Union?

On October 1, two days after Lyft announced that it would be opening a satellite office in Seattle, the San Francisco–based company hosted a Thursday night schmooze involving journalists, drivers, and riders at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room on Capitol Hill. It was interesting timing for a party. A month earlier, Seattle City Council member Mike O’Brien had introduced a union-backed bill that would allow Lyft, Uber, Sidecar, and other transportation network company drivers to collectively bargain with the companies running their apps. No city had tried anything like that before. Local debuts of unregulated, on-demand apps usually provoke some kind of reaction from flustered city governments, but until O’Brien’s proposed regulation, no municipalities had attempted to legislate—or even define—the organizing rights of on-demand workers.

The Lyft party, which took place in a cavernous meeting space among the roasting machine’s metal tubes and whirring parts, seemed designed to imply that this kind of regulatory effort wouldn’t be necessary. When I sat down near a pile of beans with Lyft Seattle general manager Todd Kelsay (formerly of Sun Microsystems and Microsoft), he characterized Lyft as a “people-powered” company with a community mission…