Thousands of rideshare app drivers are occurring strike on Valentines Day throughout 10 U.S. cities to protest low wages and poor security requirements, alongside expressing their issues about job safety.
Uber, Lyft, Doordash and different drivers won’t offer rides to or from the airport in Austin, Chicago, Hartford, Miami, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, and Tampa, Fla. on Feb. 14. Justice for App Staff, the union representing greater than 130,000 rideshare drivers and supply staff, stated drivers will probably be placing all day.
Uber and Lyft pay rideshare drivers poverty wages so low theyre under the minimal wage in some states, forcing drivers to work as much as 60-80 hours every week in mobile-sweatshop situations simply to have the ability to pay their payments, the union stated in a press release to TIME. Drivers are placing to rework our business, and to upend Uber and Lyfts techniques of exploitation to create as an alternative a extra simply future, the place our labor and humanity are handled with dignity.
Drivers at these corporations are unbiased contractors, not staff. That designation signifies that drivers don’t get the identical authorized protections different full-time staff do below federal labor legislation.
About 15% of Lyft drivers final 12 months earned lower than 70% of what riders pay, Reuters experiences. Lyft not too long ago sought to rectify that on Feb. 6, once they introduced that drivers will probably be assured weekly earnings. Uber instructed USA At this time in a press release that strikes have not often had any impression on journeys, costs, or driver availability.”
In November 2023, Uber and Lyft paid $328 million to settle a lawsuit towards them for alleged wage theft. The settlement additionally required Uber and Lyft to supply minimal driver earnings ground, paid sick depart, and different adjustments, in keeping with a press launch from the New York State Legal professional Generals Workplace.
The unique model of this story misstated when the strike is occurring. It should final all day on Feb. 14, not simply from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
