Uber is a bad example because it's losing billions every year. It may just evaporate when the current bubble pops. In my opinion, they are mistreating employees because they are getting desperate to find a way to make the business profitable.
IMHO, that's what makes it a good example. It can only make money by driving its drivers' wages well below what they themselves will accept or what competing, traditional taxi companies currently pay. With the spigot of VC cash turned off, Uber is exposed as having little viable business model besides straightforward exploitation. There's basically nothing innovative or original about them that lets them make money off nothing but an app for coordinating other agents' labor. The drivers are either incredibly exploited wage-workers or independent contractors who therefore don't need Uber, but can't be both.
(1) Traditional taxi companies don't usually have employees. They mostly have independent contractors - just like Uber
(2) In many areas, taxi drivers actually pay the taxi company for the right to use the taxi. They do so because the taxi company owns or rents a government license required to operate a taxi.
If the exercise is to compare being a taxi driver for Uber or a taxi driver for a traditional taxi company, in many areas, there is no case to be made that Uber offers worse working conditions.