Star Tribune
Minneapolis City Council members may postpone start of Uber, Lyft minimum wage ordinance
With a vote looming this week to reconsider Minneapolis’ new rideshare minimum wage law, City Council President Elliott Payne and Council Members Katie Cashman and Aurin Chowdhury say they will seek to push back the ordinance’s effective date by two months, to July 1.
The council members say the extra months would allow them to collaborate with state lawmakers, and provide more time for new rideshare startups looking to enter into the metro market. Multiple companies have expressed interest in operating in the Twin Cities to fill gaps left by Uber and Lyft, which have pledged to leave the city once the ordinance takes effect.
The city’s rideshare ordinance, passed last month over Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto, has caused increasing consternation among business groups and disability and senior advocates, as its start date of May 1 nears.
Council Member Andrea Jenkins, who had voted for the ordinance, has asked the council to reconsider the ordinance at its meeting Thursday.
Payne, Cashman and Chowdhury say they’re open to changes to the ordinance, and will seek to extend the implementation date to July 1 to figure out what those changes might be. The three members should provide enough votes to enact the delay.
“This is a good faith extension for us as Council Members to work on our legislative process, collaborate with leaders in the state, ensure drivers have the fair compensation they need, and support emerging rideshare companies and riders adopting them,” the three said in a joint statement released Wednesday. “It is on Uber and Lyft to decide if they will treat their workers fairly, pay them adequately, or continue their egregious behavior in scaring the public with their threats to leave the people of Minneapolis behind.”
Uber spokesman Josh Gold said Wednesday that the company would continue to operate in Minneapolis until July 1 if the council does push back the effective date.
“The proposed delay gives us more time to continue to work with state leaders on a comprehensive statewide solution that raises pay across the state, protects flexibility and keeps rides affordable,” he said.
City and state analyses show that rideshare giants Uber and Lyft currently compensate drivers — many of them working class immigrants — less than Minneapolis’ minimum wage. But at the rates that the city has prescribed of $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute, Uber and Lyft have threatened to abandon the market, saying it will be too costly to operate here. The move would be chaotic in the near term, before competing rideshare startups have gotten a chance to get licensed and recruit drivers, representatives of the MSP Airport and hospitality industry declared in a news conference earlier this week.
Four new rideshare companies have applied for license to work in Minneapolis, but none have yet completed the process.
A majority of 13 council members must agree to reopen the ordinance for further consideration on Thursday before amending it in any way, including changing the effective date.
The ordinance’s original authors, Council Members Robin Wonsley, Jason Chavez and Jamal Osman also issued a joint statement on Wednesday saying they will support delaying implementation to July 1, but will not be on board with rescinding the ordinance or changing the rate if it would result in drivers continuing to be paid below Minneapolis’ minimum wage of $15.57.
The co-authors said they will try to amend the ordinance on Thursday to ensure fare transparency by requiring rideshare companies send receipts to both riders and drivers showing how much the driver was paid, as well as mandating rideshare companies to make regular reports to the city.
“Uber and Lyft drivers are being paid a subminimum wage and that is fundamentally wrong and goes against our shared values. We passed this ordinance because the current rideshare system is broken, and we were shocked to see the way it is leading to exploitative labor practices,” according to the statement from Payne, Cashman and Chowhury. “Inaction was not and is not a choice.”
Uber and Lyft have said they may be willing to stay if drivers’ compensation rates were limited to more modest raises, such as the rate of 89 cents per mile and 49 cents per minute, identified in a state Department of Labor and Industry report.
Council Members Jenkins and Emily Koskicq also issued a joint statement on Wednesday saying they will try to amend the ordinance rate to $1.21 per mile according to the state report while maintaining the city’s per-minute rate of 51 cents, and to conduct evaluations six months and one year from the implementation date, which they both support moving to July 1.
“This is the only plan to address the rate disparities that has been presented clearly to the public and will bring efficient, expedited resolution to this matter,” said the statement. “It’s time to move forward based on both our intentions and on the current data available – not one-or-the-other.“
The University of Minnesota has postponed a scheduled Tuesday night lecture from infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci after pro-Palestinian protests that included some protesters barricading Morrill Hall the day before.
On Monday night, several hundred pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at the building, which houses the Minneapolis campus’ administrative offices, as Students for a Democratic Society used tied-up patio furniture to form giant barricades blocking the building’s large front windows and its entrances. The protesters demanded the U divest from companies with ties to Israel. At least 11 of the protesters were arrested.
The university decided to postpone Fauci’s lecture set for Tuesday night because of “unexpected and complicated incidents” over the past day, university spokesman Jake Rickersaid in an email.
“Given the importance of this lecture and the unexpected and complicated incidents that occurred on campus in the past 24 hours, University officials determined it best to reschedule to ensure a great experience for attendees and our University community,” Ricker said.
All tickets for the lecture will be voided and information about the rescheduled date will be posted later, the university said in an online post about the postponement. Pre-paid parking will be automatically refunded, the university added.
Additional pro-Palestinian protests took place Tuesday afternoon at the university in front of Coffman Memorial Union. The protests prompted university officials to temporarily close down at least a dozen buildings in a Tuesday alert. Those included: Coffman Union, Weisman Museum, Hasselmo Hall, Ford Hall, Vincent Murphy Hall, Tate Lab, Morrill Hall, Northrop Auditorium, Johnston Hall, Walter Library, Smith Hall, and Kolthoff Hall. All other East Bank campus buildings were switched to keycard access only, according to the alert.
An anti-Fauci rally had also been planned by conservative group Action 4 Liberty to coincide with the lecture at the university, but that was moved after the lecture was canceled.
Star Tribune
Aunt IDs 3-year-old who was fatally shot in Minneapolis home, speaks about what happened
A close relative on Tuesday identified the 3-year-old boy who was fatally shot this week in his family’s northeast Minneapolis apartment a day earlier.
Woods said police have told the family that Jajuan got ahold of the gun and it went off.
“Someone left a loaded gun [in the home,” said Woods, who has started an online fundraiser for her sister, Charlotte Williams. “He got ahold of it thinking it was a toy.”
Woods said her nephew, who went by Junior, “loved trucks and dinosaurs. He was just so silly and goofy. He was a momma’s boy.”
Jajuan suffered a gunshot wound to the top of the head, a source with knowledge of the incident told the Star Tribune. Paramedics rushed the toddler to HCMC, where he died a short time later.
Woods said she did not know who owned the gun.
Police spokesman Trevor Folke said Tuesday evening there have been no arrests and had no update to share in the “active and ongoing investigation.”
Bergman is championing efforts to boost literacy and invest in early childhood programming, and getting there, she said, requires financial sustainability, and that may mean closings and mergers. She attended last week’s finance committee meeting — as she’s done on a regular basis — and described the mention of “opportunity” as another rosy way of avoiding hard truths.
The district is spread too thin, she said. Some schools could take more students. Yet in others, class sizes are huge and caseloads so large that educators can’t build relationships with students and families, she said.
“I just fundamentally believe, and it’s been one of the objectives of my campaign, to be someone out in the community talking about this moment, listening to reactions, and listening for the places where families could get on board with the possibility of their beloved school having to close,” she said.
A way to get there, Bergman said, is by consolidating buildings, and in turn, expanding programming — perhaps not far from the school left behind.
Callahan argues that the mere mention of closings is causing families to leave the district: “This is not something that should be talked about so flippantly,” she said.
She said she would entertain the idea only if there also are plans to stabilize and recruit students, plus answers to three questions: How much money is being saved by closing a building? How many students will be retained if the school closes? And how many new students have to enroll to keep it open?
