An article that was posted yesterday in the Stranger takes an in-depth look at how two students at the University of Washington who were driving for Uber have started a new workers' movement for the on-demand economy. 

Daniel Ajema and Yedidya Seifu helped found the App-Based Drivers Association last year.  Since then, drivers across the country have reached out to the ABDA leadership council looking for guidance in their organizing efforts.

The article starts this way:

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.

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