Top International Educator Moynihan Speaks Out on Uber’s “Appalling” Treatment of Drivers
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Rhode Island Deacon Patrick Moynihan with The Haiti Project recently made national news for rejecting a $100,000 donation from Patriots owner Robert Kraft and now is upping his criticism of Uber’s treatments of its drivers.
Moynihan, who for the past 23 years has been leading the non-profit, which is an innovative education program in Haiti.
The program is credited with having educated thousands of children that have gone on to attend college and help build a middle class in a Haiti — a country decimated by poverty.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe outspoken Moynihan joined GoLocal on Monday to discuss both the reaction to his refusal of Kraft’s donation, his urging for the Patriots owner to denounce prostitution as well as his views on how the gig economy is manipulating workers.
Following Uber's dismal IPO, Moynihan decried the impact the tech company has on its workers.
"Uber wasn’t innovative — it just has been reported [as such]. The innovation of Uber was to shift the overhead on to the driver and basically the drivers have now figured out that in the end, when they actually count the depreciation or loss of value of their vehicle over time the time they’re making to pay the repairs and all that, they’re making less than minimum wage," said Moynihan.
"It’s appalling to me that a tech company got away with not providing drivers with something as simple las a Quicken Calculator like, 'Here’s your car, here’s its value today, here’s it’s value in the future, here’s your cost of operation — do you want to be an Uber driver?' No, they left them on their own what really bothers me is the word entrepreneur is used all the time to create labor abuses."
"It’s a classic case of three things with Uber," said Moynihan. "One, they did not properly inform the drivers which they hired — did not hire, but contracted, right? Two, they actually started their company in a manner that you aren’t able to tip the drivers through the app which was a clear red flag — and then they went around and willy-nilly with total disregard for rule of law deregulated an industry without anybody’s formal permission."
Moynihan then went on to compare Uber's manner of operation to that of opioid companies.
"I know this is going to sound bombastic — but what they did was the same thing that drug dealers do when they push fentanyl and Oxycontin — they’re basically selling a product in a deregulated format," said Moynihan. "Obviously Ubers aren’t going to kill us as fast as those other things so in terms of magnitude it’s not even close…but the basically [deregulated] an industry from under itself and they got away with it."
Clarifying Comments on Kraft -- and Calling Out Prostitution
Moynihan, who joined GoLocalProv CEO last week on GoLocal LIVE to discuss rejecting a $100,000 donation from New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft, said that his rejection of Kraft's intended donation -- and subsequent media frenzy -- was not based on moral reasons.
"I do want to point out that [rejecting] Kraft’s money is not actually on moral reasons, it’s on social reasons — human beings are social beings and we require society to fully manifest ourselves [and] the issue of prostitution is not a personal issue, it is actually a public health and safety issue. It’s a health issue because of the transmission of communicable diseases which are very serious and proven to be detrimental to society," said Moynihan. "It’s also an issue because in and around illegal activity — no matter what the illegal activity its — its creation of money, money needs laundering, laundering needs created protection needs. So you know you can’t just isolate this and so oh, just this particular activity is illegal activity happening in Florida."
"It’s not] something as simple as a moral issue — I know, I’m a Deacon and it seems like I’m pointing fingers. We’re all sinners and I’m not judging Mr. Kraft at all in terms of his personal actions. We’re looking specifically at what does it mean when a guy relentlessly and myopically pursues the protection of his reputation and avails himself to the best legal talent without regard to the four [Florida] counties that were simply trying to eradicate prostitution," said Moynihan. "I really believe these police departments didn’t have any interest in whether or not Mr. Kraft keeps the football team or not or what Goodell has to do — ultimately their interest is eradicating and extremely commercialized, extremely pervasive ring of prostitution. I have to live in one of those counties and I don’t want there to be prostitution net to a Subway in a strip mall and I don’t think anybody does."
Moynihan said he does not believe the tap from the massage parlor in the case needs to be made public -- but that he believes the media attention is misguided.
"I don’t think the tap needs to be seen by the public," said Moynihan. "It could [be seen] by the jury, the lawyers, the judge to make sure it’s been handled properly. The fact that it’s inadmissible makes sense, it’s just unfortunate. Nobody intended to bungle this situation — they have — but to have the lawyers sort of gloat all over it…I would like to see a little bit of a different treatment of the situation that more on the actual issue of prostitution."
"I think the proper remedy is for there to be a clear denouncement of prostitution and the impact that prostitution has on society as a health risk and as I said creating criminal activity — rather than spending all this time on whether or not Mr. Kraft has found a way to technically evade what he allegedly did in a manner that will allow Goodell to technically evade making [any] actions," said Moynihan. "I’d like to see journalists spend a lot more time talking about why aren’t the two women that were originally arrested in this situation, why aren’t they talking? Why aren’t they willing to talk at all in this case?"
"It’s difficult to accept the way of the minimization of prostitution that’s going on right now — you have Matt Ford [of the New Republic] inventing the term consensual sex work, right? Is there such a thing as a legal act that’s entered into by somebody who is of a far less economic situation than the person securing those services and a power relationship — is there such a thing as consensual sex work? I mean the CDC, everybody can tell you that prostitution is extremely anti-social, very bad for society, it leads to depression, it leads to people being very sick with very serious illnesses which often leads to death and leads to people taking their own lives because they feel dejected — it’s not a good thing," said Moynihan.
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