Uh oh. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just stuck her foot in her mouth again.
A few months ago, she went on an anti-Uber tweet spree, blaming the unregulated rise in popularity of the company for the financial and personal woes of yellow cab drivers.
NYC's fourth driver suicide. Yellow cab drivers are in financial ruin due to the unregulated expansion of Uber. What was a living wage job now pays under minimum.
We need:
– to call Uber drivers what they are: EMPLOYEES, not contractors
– Fed jobs guarantee
– Prep for automation https://t.co/FjfapJV2ni— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) March 21, 2018
It comes down to the city, and from what I’ve read, two issues: Uber laws and addressing the medallion crisis.
Part of me wonders if the city should compensate medallion owners in some way, since their Uber rollout essentially penalized yellow cabs who followed licensing rules.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) March 22, 2018
Yes. Drivers must organize to apply pressure on the city. There are yellow cab unions (the TWA wrote the notice subtweeted here).
Sadly, some of these suicides have been committed in a way to shed light on the issue (one happened in his cab, with a note, in front of City Hall).
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) March 22, 2018
However, the candidate apparently doesn’t put her money where her mouth is.
FEC financial reports show that Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign spent $4,000 on Uber rides for campaign staff between April and June of this year. She tweeted her sentiments about the company BEFORE her staff used the service, so you’d think if she felt that strongly about helping out yellow cab companies, she’d tell her staff NOT to use the ride share service.
Reports also show that another ride share service called Juno was used and they spent over $2,000 there. Not seeing any yellow cab service listed on there, Alexandria.
Fox news reached out to her for comment, but received no response.