Who is Rideshare Drivers United?

Mission

Rideshare Drivers United - California (RDU) is an organization of drivers who are uniting for a just rideshare industry, where drivers have a real voice in their job and earn fair pay and benefits. We are:

• building a democratic, driver-led organization of app-based workers that demands fair treatment from an industry that systematically exploits its workers,
  

• developing a hybrid app-based and driver-to-driver organizing model to involve and develop a truly representative, broad group of drivers, while building capacity to develop an organization to scale,
  

• strategically embedding media and social media in our organizing to overcome a well-financed, powerful opposition and gain broad public support for our movement,
  

• developing the capacity of both members and leaders, who comprise a broad diversity of races, gender identities, nationalities, and abilities, to step up into all the roles of our demanding organizing efforts, and
  

• replicating our organizing model for app-based industries in cities across the United States and internationally.

History

Founded in 2018 by a group of LA drivers, Rideshare Drivers United is a driver-led organization, our values deeply rooted in worker democracy, grassroots action, and labor rights. We’ve grown from 400 members in Fall 2018 to over 20,000 California driver members today. We have built three California based chapters, in LA, San Diego, and the Bay Area. 

In our 2019, we organized two significant driver strikes, our first in LA, and our second right before Uber’s IPO, that inspired global driver actions on six continents around the world, calling on investors to reject Uber's abuse of misclassification. Our strikes and our multiple trips to Sacramento to engage legislators helped us win California legislation, AB5, that clarified that because we have little control over our work, we are due all rights due employees. Despite winning the legislation, Lyft & Uber ignored it and continued to substantially underpay us based on CA minimum wage laws. Over 5,000 of RDU driver members filed wage claims with the State of California Labor Commission. Our claims totaled more than $1.3 Billion in stolen wages, expenses, and damages, and inspired the Labor Commission to file a suit against both Lyft & Uber on behalf of all drivers. The California Attorney General and City Attorney's for Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco joined that suit, and are still in litigation.

With the state of California behind the drivers, the companies retaliated with ballot Proposition 22.  This legalized our misclassification as independent contractors and denies us real control over our business & pay, with no benefits from the safety net and wage protections of labor law due all other workers in California. In our fight against the dangerous Prop 22, hundreds of driver volunteers texted and phoned over a million California voters to tell them that Prop 22 was poised to hurt drivers. Sadly the companies spent an unprecedented $230 million on the campaign, making false promises to voters, and we lost our rights to Prop 22 when 58% of the voters said Yes to the initiative. 

We are ready to continue our fight for fair wages and a voice on the job.