His claim is that the conditions, on their own, would be considered bad; that the pay, on its own, would be considered good (at least, good enough to require ju

His claim is that the conditions, on their own, would be considered bad; that the pay, on its own, would be considered good (at least, good enough to require justification). The drivers, by deciding to take the job, consider the goodness of the pay vs the badness of the conditions to balance at a level which is at least as good as they could find elsewhere (otherwise, they'd quit and go elsewhere). Hence, it's not hypocritical to say that bad conditions justify a high pay; whilst also considering the overall conditions/pay balance to be good, and hence worth striking over.