Travis Kalanick is on the business advisory committee of US President Donald Trump.
While the weekend echoed with the furore over US President Donald Trump's executive order to ban citizens of seven countries from entering the US, another echo in the aftermath was to ban and delete the ride-sharing app Uber.
The ban calls came after Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's stand against Trump's executive order was deemed too docile by the Americans. Uber also broke the taxi strike at the John F. Kennedy International Airport drawing widespread ire.
Kalanick is a part of US President Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, along with others like Elon Musk (Tesla), Mary Barra (General Motors), Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo), Ginni Rometty (IBM), Bob Iger (Disney), and a dozen others.
It is for this reason, people, especially Americans, were keenly eyeing the stand Kalanick and Uber would take after Prez Trump's immigrant ban.
In a Facebook post, Kalanick shared the text of the e-mail he'd sent Uber employees, stating that the company would take care of the affected drivers' salaries for 90 days and would take up the issue at the business advisory group meeting in Washington this week, a reaction that was deemed unsatisfactory by the people.
“These drivers currently outside of the US will not be able to get back into the country for 90 days. That means they will not be able to earn a living and support their families—and of course they will be separated from their loved ones during that time," he said in the e-mail to his employees.
Thousands of Americans gathered at various airports in the country in the hours after the ban, pledging their support to the Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, Libyans, Sudanese, Somalians, and Yemenis stuck at the airport or detained after the executive order was signed while they were still airborne.
New York's yellow taxis went on a strike, refusing to carry any passengers from the John F Kennedy airport, to oppose the policy and show their solidarity to the people. While Kalanick pledged his support to his drivers, replies to his Facebook post show that Uber cabs broke the strike at JFK, drawing ire and giving impetus to the #deleteUber calls.
Many even asked him to quit Trump advisory group to show his seriousness.
To make matters worse for Uber, its biggest rival Lyft pledged $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) whose lawyers were the first to get a partial stay order on Trump's ban call.
Mending his ways, and in a show of stronger support, the Uber CEO shared another post on his Facebook wall titled 'Standing up for the driver community' to those affected by “President's unjust immigration and travel ban”.
In his attempt to allay the anger, he said, Uber will provide 24/7 legal support to the drivers affected by the order, compensate the drivers, urge the government to reinstate the right of US residents to travel, create a $3 million legal defence fund to help the drivers with immigration services,
Here's what he promised:
- Provide 24/7 legal support for drivers who are trying to get back into the country. Our lawyers and immigration experts will be on call 24/7 to help.
- Compensate drivers for their lost earnings. This will help them support their families and put food on the table while they are banned from the US;
- Urge the government to reinstate the right of U.S. residents to travel - whatever their country of origin - immediately;
- Create a $3 million legal defense fund to help drivers with immigration and translation services.
However, people were still unconvinced and asked him to donate to the ACLU too.
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