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Uber and Lyft drivers in more than two dozen cities around the world participate in international protest day, calling for better pay and working conditions before Uber's estimated $ 91 billion IPO .
The day of action began this morning in Melbourne, Australia, where drivers showed up in front of a local support center called Greenlight Hub. A few hours later, in New York, about forty cars formed a protest procession on the Brooklyn Bridge. After that, about 300 drivers and their supporters gathered in front of the Uber and Lyft chauffeur service offices in Long Island City, holding placards saying "Driver Power." and "For Uber IPO: repay our money."
As many as 300 demonstrators in San Francisco gathered in front of Uber headquarters at noon local time, after which hundreds of drivers should close their apps until midnight. Uber sent an email to his on-site staff to warn of protests – for safety's sake, according to an employee.
Until now, information on the success of the event has been mixed. The New York Times called the initial turnout "muted". This morning, I have anecdotally tested the impact and magnitude of the outbreaks by opening the Uber and Lyft apps during off hours. A trip from my house in Brooklyn to the offices of Vox Media in Manhattan cost the same price as it usually would. And there was a normal wait time of less than 5 minutes.
According to Uber, up to now, the company has found no significant impact on the reliability of the service: waiting time, percentage of trips up or number of connected drivers compared to the monthly average in cities where demonstrations have been reported. . Lyft did not respond to an inquiry as to whether the demonstrations had interrupted their daily operations.
But the fact that the drivers protested the same day in different cities of the world is a major feat for their organizing capacity – and one of the largest coordinated events by the workers of the market economy in history recent. Unlike many office workers, the Uber and Lyft drivers do not have a central communication platform. They also do not have a union to help organize logistics. This is because they are largely viewed as contractors rather than employees (although this is the subject of heated debate, especially in California).
Instead, repeated application drivers communicate through a series of decentralized online groups on networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter. The organization of today's event began in Los Angeles with the carpool group, Rideshare Drivers United, which first called for a 24-hour strike. San Diego quickly followed suit and several other cities, such as San Francisco, invited motorists to close their apps for a short time and gather in Uber's offices. Within days, the news spread overseas in countries such as India and Chile, showing solidarity expressing its concern among workers in extremely different regions.
"The day of action was already a success before we started," said Lenny Sanch, a driver at Uber and Lyft in Chicago, who helped fellow students organize a rally in front of City Hall, where they ask for support from the Mayor's Office. "We caused an organic rise in a short time."
Another victory of the strike is that it has attracted the attention of leading Democratic politicians who have a national reputation. Almost all the leading Democratic candidates for the presidency, Senator Bernie Sanders at Silicon Valley sweetheart Pete Buttigieg, publicly supported the strike (although, in particular, the word to leader Joe Biden).
The support of great progressive powers such as Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren is essential, particularly because of the battle in California, where some Democrats are pushing to legislate for Uber and other workers in the economy are considered employees, not entrepreneurs.
If California succeeds in these efforts, it could set a precedent for the legislatures of other Democratic-controlled states, forcing companies like Uber and Lyft to radically change their business model.
"For me, personally, this message is more about the state of California than Uber," said Steve Gregg, 51, a Uber and Lyft pilot for more than two years in the San Francisco Bay Area. "I would really like the government to get mobilized and do its job to protect the workers."
The Uber and Lyft strike may not have caused a transport crisis, but it is a sign of a deeper and longer-lasting labor crisis in a workforce more and more frustrated. A problem that even Uber himself has recognized is a significant and growing problem.
Anyway, Friday, Uber executives will have a smile on their faces and will rejoice on the New York Stock Exchange. Today's protests do not encourage them to make changes overnight. But unlike the normal fanfare surrounding an IPO, the strike proved that labor issues would remain a thorny issue alongside Uber for years to come.
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