UN women's agency backs out of partnership with Uber

NEW YORK (KGO) -- The U.N. women's agency has backed out of a partnership with the ride-sharing company Uber which had pledged to create jobs for 1 million women drivers by 2020 after a protest by trade unions and civil society groups.

Brigitta Paas, vice president of the International Transport Workers' Federation, said the unions and NGOs immediately rejected Uber's "idea of a million jobs that we knew were likely to be insecure, ill paid and potentially unsafe." They launched an online campaign and claimed credit for UNWomen pulling out of the partnership

UNWomen and Uber announced the partnership March 10 during a U.N. meeting to assess progress toward equality for women 20 years after the landmark U.N. women's conference in Beijing.

Uber reiterated its commitment to jobs for women in a statement Monday.