If you want an excellent primer on our fight to organize and improve working conditions for Seattle-area for-hire drivers, look no further than this article that was published today in the American Prospect. 

It's quite an extraordinary piece and call our Union - Teamsters 117 - the "spearhead of the battle" to create a more equitable city for all Seattle residents, not just the wealthy few.

It's long, but definitely a worthwhile read.

Seattle Progressives Fight Inequality: The Teamsters Take on Uber

Metropolitan Seattle is two worlds. The city’s center is a gleaming fantasyland, with cruise ships on the bay, yellow construction cranes looming above the office towers, one-of-a-kind boutiques and ubiquitous coffee shops and bakeries. On the periphery sprawls a working-class world packed with immigrant-owned mom-and-pop shops and strip malls featuring chain drug stores and payday loan dealers. Connecting the two worlds is a service sector, where sales clerks, baristas, and taxi drivers meet the needs of techies and hipsters. What’s unique to Seattle is a progressive movement trying to bridge the two worlds to create a sustainable economy, with good jobs and efficient public services. Four big unions are at the center of the battle, but they’ve brought allies with them: environmentalists, faith leaders, NGOs, and above all, the organizations of the myriad immigrant populations of Sikhs, Somalis, Ethiopians, Kenyans, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pakistanis, and Mexicans. MORE