And While We are on the Subject of Uber………

It appears that they retaliated against one of their drivers for talking to the press:

An Uber driver who critiqued the company’s top-brass at a highly publicized event now tells the San Francisco Examiner he’s facing backlash from the tech company.

Last Friday Eric Barajas, a Bay Area-based Uber driver who works in San Francisco, leveled criticism to Uber which garnered exposure in national news. The next day, he said, he was unable to get fares via the Uber app.

Barajas showed the Examiner video of two phones with two Uber driver accounts side by side, one showing “pings” for ride requests, while Barajas’ phone had no pings. Now he says he isn’t sure what to do – his three children and wife depend on his earnings to live, and without his income from Uber he may face dire financial straits.

The Examiner contacted Uber, and only an hour after a phone conversation with an Uber spokeswoman, Barjas saw his account suddenly reactivated.

He also reported “strange” modifications to his profile and Uber login screen, what he said are clear signs Uber was trying to shore up the story they told this reporter.

“You call them, and then its active,” Barajas told the Examiner. “That says to me they’re trying to cover their tracks.”

He still worries that his account may be deactivated or otherwise modified in the future, once media exposure dies down. That exposure began last Friday, when former Obama campaign manager turned-Uber advisor David Plouffe was onstage at the Next Economy Conference in San Francisco.

As cameras rolled, Plouffe invited drivers to speak at a microphone. Barajas made his voice heard.

“I just wanted to know how you guys are helping the economy when there are full time drivers like me… who are struggling to make ends meet, barely making minimum wage,” he said. On Craigslist, Uber in the past has said drivers could make $35 an hour, Barajas said, but that isn’t near what he earns.

“After all the expenses I’m really struggling, I don’t know if I can pay my PG&E bill and my water bill,” he said.

Uber is founded and run by bad people whose goal is to privatize their profits and to socialize their losses.

It is a fundamentally evil and hypocritical business model.