Rather unsurprisingly given his statements about the ordinance already, Jacob Frey has vetoed the Minneapolis City Council's rideshare ordinance that I profiled a few days ago. He stated in doing so that:
Over the past couple weeks, I have spoken with drivers, riders, advocates, business associations, labor unions, and rideshare companies alike – and from the feedback we gathered, it’s clear we need more time to get this right. In the coming weeks, we will work in partnership with all stakeholders to do our homework, deliberate, and make sure we put together an ordinance that is data-driven and clearly articulates policies based on known impacts, not speculation.
As overriding his veto requires 9 votes and the measure only passed 7-5, a future for this ordinance seems out of the question. This will likely necessitate the ordinance being redone—assuming it isn't put on the backburner entirely given the upcoming elections—and marks the second serious defeat for MULDA, the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association.
I will note the other curious detail of Frey's veto today, though. He stated that Uber drivers will earn a minimum wage comparable to the city's existing minimum wage ($15.19 per hour)—and that this is being done effective immediately and voluntarily by Uber. The specific verbiage for this agreement applies to “time spent en route to a passenger and while a passenger is in the vehicle” and the agreement will seemingly be codified at a later date in Frey's alluded-to ordinance. (As far as I can tell, Lyft remains unaccounted for in this equation.)
In any case, Council member Robin Wonsley had this to say about the whole affair—and for what it's worth seems to speak for the democratic socialist block on the council (herself, Jason Chavez, and Aisha Chughtai):
This veto is an inexcusable betrayal of Minneapolis workers. The ordinance was developed over eight months of consultation with drivers, city staff, and national experts. As a Council Member, Jacob Frey voted to approve a $15 minimum wage, but evidently he is ready to abandon any commitment to living wages or workers’ rights under the pressure of lobbying by multibillion-dollar out-of-state corporations. This fight is not over. The drivers who have been organizing for this will continue to show up, because their livelihoods are on the line. And as long as I’m in City Hall, I’ll support their work and the rights and dignity of every worker in the city.