Over the past decade, commuters in large U.S. cities where relying on a personal vehicle can be not just inconvenient but cost-prohibitive have gradually grown dependent on ride-sharing apps.
On Wednesday morning, they’ll find out what withdrawal feels like. Drivers for Uber, Lyft, and other platforms frustrated by what they describe as low pay and a lack of job security are staging a two-hour strike in locations from New York City to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
The action, supported by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance and the grassroots Drive United in D.C., will last from 7 to 9 a.m., organizers said. Occurring a day before Uber’s initial stock offering, it’s a shot across the bow for the lucrative companies and their investors who have grappled with growing dissatisfaction over business models that rely on contract workers and hefty commissions for fares arranged through apps.
A Georgetown University study earlier this year, called the Uber Workforce in D.C., showed 32% of drivers interviewed over a two-year period had run up debt working for Uber and one, an Ethiopian immigrant, filed for bankruptcy when he was unable to make his car payments despite working 16 hours a day.
“Incentives and rules can literally change by the hour and involve so many variables that drivers need more than a dozen data points to even begin to calculate earnings,” said Katie Wells, the postdoctoral fellow who authored the Georgetown study, part of a broader examination by three schools of gig-economy working conditions.
“I have a 5-year-old son, and I drive for Uber to support him, but it’s becoming harder and harder,” said Sonam Lama, a driver since 2015 and a member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. “Uber claims that we are independent contractors even though they set our rates and control our workday. Uber executives are getting rich off of our work; they should treat us with respect.”
The strike has already generated a Twitter shoutout from Sen. Bernie Sanders, the socialist seeking the Democratic nomination for president. He agrees that ride-sharing companies aren’t paying their drivers enough.
[Opinion: Uber and Lyft wages aren’t falling — more people are simply working for them]
Uber says it can’t pay its drivers more money, but rewarded its CEO with nearly $50 million last year. People who work for multibillion-dollar companies should not have to work 70 or 80 hours a week to get by. I stand with the Uber and Lyft drivers going on strike on May 8.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 3, 2019
Uber, which is based in San Francisco and began operating in 2010, said Tuesday it has been working to address such concerns and will keep doing so.
“Drivers are the heart of our service,” a company representative said. “We can’t succeed without them.”
Uber has promised a one-time cash bonus to 1.1 million qualifying drivers with a total value of about $300 million and noted in a regulatory filing that operators have earned $78.2 billion on its worldwide platform since 2015. That includes $1.2 billion in tips since that option was introduced in 2017.
Lyft, which began selling shares to the public in late March and is now valued at $17.3 billion, said its drivers earn an average of $20 an hour, and most work fewer than 10 hours a week.
“We know that access to flexible, extra income makes a big difference for millions of people, and we’re constantly working to improve how we can best serve our driver community,” a representative said. The San Francisco-based company’s shares fell 4 cents to $60.53 on Tuesday.
Separately, the killing earlier this year of a University of South Carolina student who climbed into a car driven by a stranger she believed to be her Uber driver, drew attention to the risks of relying on ride-share vehicles with few distinguishing marks.
Eight members of Congress, including former Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley, inquired about Uber’s safety standards and those of four other firms last year after a CNN report that 103 Uber and 18 Lyft drivers had been accused of sexually abusing or assaulting passengers over a four-year period.
“As ridesharing becomes more ubiquitous, it should be in our shared interest to ensure these spaces are measured by the highest standard in safety,” the lawmakers wrote.
[Read more: There’s a gender wage gap for Uber drivers, but it’s not caused by sexism]
