Congratulations, fellow drivers!

This week, our hard-fought struggles have truly paid off. Thanks to your commitment to improving the lives of all rideshare drivers, our People’s Enforcement Campaign has achieved a major victory!

As you may have heard, the State of California is now mandating that Uber and Lyft follow the law and provide us with the same protections and benefits as all other employees. A state judge ruled that Uber and Lyft’s arguments were “nonsense” and “fly in the face of economic reality and common sense.”

This is a best case scenario - to have the weight of the state behind us. And this only happened because thousands of us have stood up and said, Enough is Enough! We protested, we went on strike, and thousands of us filed wage claims totaling more than $1.3 billion. This puts us much closer to our goal of not only winning basic labor rights as employees, but also winning the right to form our own union and fight for a legally enforceable contract.

That’s why Uber and Lyft are running scared. And we’re seeing them pull out all the stops to prevent us from gaining our rights. 

With the judges and the whole state behind the drivers, they are using threats and scare tactics to try to get us to give in. In emails, op-eds, and news shows, the companies are claiming we’ll lose all flexibility, we’ll have to be full time, or even that they’ll have to cease operations in California. At the same time, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is also trying to act like the good guy, saying “drivers deserve better.” 

That’s not the first time they’ve pulled a bait-and-switch on us. We all remember making $1.80 per mile three years ago, compared to just one third of that now. We remember how the companies refused to tell us how much riders pay per ride and created tools to make our job easier but then punished us for using them. And we know that they only pay us for “engaged time” rather than all the time we spend behind the wheel. The companies have shown time and again that they are anti-progress, while drivers are working to change the rideshare industry for the better. So why should we trust Uber and Lyft now?

• Flexibility? Uber and Lyft have built their platforms on flexibility and have every incentive to allow employees to keep a flexible schedule. In fact, part time and flexible, self-chosen schedules are completely compatible with employment law. 
• Closing up shop? California includes Uber’s top markets - San Francisco and Los Angeles - along with both companies’ headquarters. They can’t afford to lose market shares right now.  Their bottom line depends on us - and California.

So we’re close to really winning for drivers. But Uber and Lyft’s last effort is to convince Californians to vote for a dangerous proposition on November’s California ballot, Proposition 22. If Prop 22 passes, it will undo everything we have fought for, creating a special exemption for wealthy gig companies to continue paying us less than the federal minimum wage, force us to finance their fleet, and deny us the right to have a say in our working conditions. We can’t let that happen.

By standing together over the last two years, drivers have grown into a formidable force. We have changed the conversation about gig work in this country, and we have forced politicians and judges to stand up for our rights. But we must continue that work, starting with pushing back against the companies’ threats, intimidations, and misinformation.

Drivers are changing the world for the better. Let’s keep the momentum going and stand strong against the desperate and deceptive tactics of the greedy gig giants. Our unity is important. We can’t let Uber and Lyft scare us into giving them a free ride. Let’s stand strong and united to win for drivers, and vote NO on Prop. 22!

In solidarity,

Rideshare Drivers United

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