Uber/Lyft Driver on Strike
A personal strike against unjust wages and unethical business
It worked. Two hundred million dollars bought a law. The rideshare corporations successfully sold a lie to California voters as part of an effort to escape pending litigation over their unethical business practices and their exploitation of workers.
In their campaign, they lied about what their proposal was offering drivers, and they lied to the public in saying that drivers supported their law. A significant block of the driving community was staunchly opposed to their proposition and I guarantee you that more drivers would have opposed it too had they not been fooled into thinking they were going to lose their jobs by the same lies and threats that the corporations sold to the public in millions of dollars of dishonest advertising.
They never were going to decrease jobs because after the election Lyft and Uber were going to return to being arch-rivals and enemies, getting back to the business of competing for market control through decreasing wait times and price-gouging accomplished primarily on the backs of worker exploitation and putting as many drivers on the road as possible.
This is why they invested so much money in their lie. When they don’t have to take accountability for drivers as employees, they can hire as many drivers as they please, flooding and congesting our roads. There is not enough work out there to sustain the number of drivers they already have, yet they will keep hiring people in an economy starving for jobs because they have nothing to lose. They and the consumer get shorter wait times and drivers will suffer.
Then more pissed off drivers will join our cause. I guarantee that the ones who supported this law either felt intimidated, have not worked for the companies very long, or only work part-time. Whether rideshare or delivery, you best believe these companies have built markets dependent on full time labor. Just look to their growth on the stock market.
However, they have now legitimized their worker exploitation and will continue to patch together a workforce of part-timers and full-time workers who are being undercompensated for our labor and fooled into thinking we are business owners and legitimate independent contractors just because we can pick our own schedule. We are low-paid employees. You do not get rich off this job. Investors and CEOs do, as well as a handful of tech engineers.
Drivers are poor and work countless hours each week just to make it. You threaten us with losing our jobs or cutting back our hours and many drivers will support your law. The companies used tactics of intimidation in their applications to distort driver opinion of their proposal and bully many of us into accepting an offer that was not in our best interest.
The corporations paid off civil rights leaders and non-profit organizations through suspect contributions and donations to achieve their aims. They registered themselves as a non-profit with the United States Post Office, stealing $1.5 million dollars, to flood mailboxes with propaganda full of lies in order to convince voters to support their measure.
They claimed that their legislation was progressive and good for the future of the gig worker. Prop 22 is good for the technology companies, not gig workers. These companies are not as innovative as they claim, and are far from progressive. There is nothing innovative, nor progressive about worker exploitation.
They garnered support for their unjust law by conning caring Californians into thinking they were voting for something that was good for drivers and public safety. As independent contractors, they excuse themselves from being responsible for the safety of our vehicles. Our cabs are inspected once a year and yet as a full-time driver I go through three sets of tires and brakes annually.
They spent more money than has ever been spent on a ballot measure in the history of U.S. elections in order to sell their lie through television and Internet advertisements. They were already in court for their exploitative practices and wrote this proposal in an attempt to buy their way out of jail.
They are unethical companies at their core who have broken the law time and time again, manipulating the myth of an independent contractor to avoid safety regulations and save on costs. They are a public liability. This law is now a threat to all workers. Other industries will soon try and follow suit and find new ways to use technology to squeeze labor and increase profits.
I am going to keep it simple right now. I am no longer trying to convince voters. I am making a statement. If you want to know more about why this is a bad law and why thousands of drivers across the state have been fighting so forcefully against it, there has been plenty written on it. Documentaries have been produced on our struggle (https://youtu.be/EeHOBFbeLF4). We just didn’t have the funding to get out our viewpoint and our message to the public.
We did however claim some major victories in this fight. We have unified as a strong coalition of drivers who are organized and prepared to keep fighting for our rights. We will not go quietly. We are not done. You will be hearing more and more about us in the coming months and years.
The Catch 22 of Prop 22 for Uber and Lyft will ultimately be that they have woken a sleeping bear. They have brought drivers together and have unified many of us in opposition to their lies and their exploitation and have helped us realize our own power. We are now not only connected to each other but also networked with organizations and unions who have successfully fought against big business in the past.
As for myself, I am officially now on strike. I will no longer work for Uber and Lyft. My ride count is stalled at 19,376 rides. These companies will not squeeze another penny out of me until they agree to treat their workers better. I love this job. I love my passengers who make the job so wonderful, but it is financially irresponsible for me to keep going down this road.
At some point, a larger conglomerate of drivers might ask consumers and the forty-two percent that supported No on Proposition 22 to boycott Lyft and Uber. The reason for this is pure and simple: money talks and bullshit walks. Lyft and Uber are corporate entities and when we hit them in the pocket, they will respond.
When the time comes, please show solidarity. On our rolling protest from San Diego to San Francisco, thousands of workers up and down the state came out to support us. A lot of people are ready to back our cause. If you want to join us as a fellow driver or an ally, please sign up at https://drivers-united.org. We are all in this together and we are stronger in solidarity.
On the Bakersfield stop to our statewide protest, we were blessed with the inspirational support of legendary labor leader Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers. She marched in the fields with Cesar Chavez and accomplished one of the greatest victories for workers in the history of our planet. When the farm workers were denied their rights after their initial appeals, they did not stop fighting. They got the world behind them.
Guess what, Uber and Lyft are global entities and drivers are exploited across the planet. We can protest them as consumers and drivers internationally. The workers will always win when we turn out in numbers, and the consumer has always shown that they will support the worker once they know the truth. We will win. It is just going to take time.
Drivers will not stop their fight here in California because as big as business and technology are in our great state, they have always taken a back seat to ethics. California has always been on the front lines of the battle for equality, whether LGBTQ+ rights or other civil rights. California has a history of supporting justice, both in the streets and in the courts.
Before we were home to Uber and Lyft, we were home to Harvey Milk, hippies, protesting students and revolutionary rebel organizations like the Brown Berets, Black Panthers and the Hell’s Angels. We have a working-class and rebellious spirit. We have always been first and foremost a state founded on ethics and justice and that has not changed. We just got fooled.
D. Thayer Russell is currently in the process of assembling and writing hundreds of tales and reflections from a 4-year, 250,000 mile plus journey as a rideshare driver while working across the great State of California. He is a former high school teacher, baseball coach, and dedicated father to his amazing, talented, and beautiful daughter.
