Immigration-Ban Protesters Urge Others to #DeleteUber
Uber is under fire after dropping surge pricing and offering service during a taxi strike at New York's JFK Airport, with many users now pledging to #DeleteUber.
In the wake of President Trump's immigration executive order, the NY Taxi Workers Alliance on Saturday announced a one-hour strike at JFK in solidarity with those being detained. Uber, however, continued to pick up passengers and ditched surge pricing.
In a tweet, the @Uber_NYC Twitter account said its "last tweet [was] not meant to break strike," pointing users to a blog post from Kalanick about the ban.
Kalanick said Trump's ban affected a "dozen or so [Uber] employees," like those who are legal US residents but not naturalized citizens. He also pledged to compensate drivers who are now stuck overseas and unable to return to the US. "While every government has their own immigration controls, allowing people from all around the world to come here and make America their home has largely been the US's policy since its founding," Kalanick wrote.
Kalanick took some heat for joining President's Trump's advisory board (alongside Tesla's Elon Musk). In the blog post, Kalanick said he took the job because "we've taken the view that in order to serve cities you need to give their citizens a voice, a seat at the table."
In a Sunday follow-up, Kalanick published the email he's sending to drivers affected by Trump's "unjust immigration and travel ban," in which he promised Uber will provide 24/7 legal support for employees trying to get back into the country, compensate them for lost earnings, and create a $3 million legal defense fund to help those with immigration and translation service.
"Uber will [also] urge the government to reinstate the right of US residents to travel—whatever their country of origin—immediately," the post said, adding that "Uber is a community. We're here to support each other."
Rival Lyft, meanwhile, capitalized on the Uber backlash by saying it will donate $1 million to the ACLU over the next four years.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.