Uber's strike drew just enough attention to terrorize Uber.

Uber and Lyft drivers drove out of their car on Wednesday. In the big US cities (and some other parts of the world), the workers of the tele-assistance services organized demonstrations of protest before the initial public offer of Uber on Friday. The company expects to be valued at more than $ 90 billion. It is not profitable at the moment because it subsidizes its service. That's why Uber has reduced driver incomes in recent months by pleading for investors. That's also why the team workers who make up the Uber fleet have chosen this week to make their voices heard.

Their argument was that Uber has to pay. At a protest outside the Uber's Market Street headquarters in San Francisco, a driver named Vinni told me that when he started driving for Uber in 2013, he was paid about $ 2.20 per mile . Now, he says, he earns about 92 cents a mile. In most jobs, he said, you would think you would do more after six years, not less.

The event in San Francisco attracted about 300 people, mostly motorists, although a good number of journalists were also present. Many workers who I spoke to said that they had heard of the protest on Facebook, where they saw either an announcement on the strike of a group organizing workers. concerts, like Gig Workers Rising, be a message from a friend. Only two of the more than a dozen drivers who I spoke to said they had already participated in a driver action. This seemed to be the first collective action of most protesters. "We have to do that," said a Uber driver named Marcos. If the salary does not improve, he said, he would need to find work, even if he had invested in a better car for his pilot position.

The strike was scheduled in Los Angeles, where Uber and Lyft workers created the Rideshare Drivers United group and called the drivers to picket at the Los Angeles International Airport. In a few days, other cities where the Uber and Lyft drivers started to organize have decided to get involved. Drivers in San Diego and San Francisco have agreed to close their apps for 12 hours. Pilots from Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago and New York also joined them, calling on all riders to support them by boycotting Uber and Lyft for solidarity. Elsewhere in the world, pilots organized actions in Melbourne, London and São Paulo. On the whole, Wednesday's protests seem to have been the biggest labor strike in the sector so far.

It is true that runners would probably have no problem hailing an Uber in their applications Wednesday, wherever they are. But even if you could get an Uber in three minutes despite the "strike", it would be difficult to call this global union action a failure. On the one hand, the effort has attracted a ton of interest in the media and has also garnered the support of left-wing political figures, including presidential candidates such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. "Your direct action for today: do not take an Uber or Lyft just for the day. (Just today! Taxis are good! You can do it!), " tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, urging her supporters not to cross the digital picket line. Even the technician Mayor Pete Buttigieg tweeted that he was down with the driver's strike.

These calls are not trivial, even if Uber has not had much success on rates (although we do not know if this is the case, and that Uber will probably not tell us). Consumers may like mobile phone applications, but the more they realize that drivers feel like they are getting a rough deal, the more they will be receptive to politicians who want to do something about it. If the courts do not do it first, lawmakers have absolutely the power to turn the vast experience of Uber, which is far from profitable, into something that benefits its workforce more. In California, a bill that would reclassify drivers as employees rather than independent contractors is currently underway. Finally, Sens. Sanders, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand co-sponsored legislation that would improve the bargaining power of workers in the sector.

Wednesday's strike may have seemed like the culmination of many years of driving turmoil, but that could be a start. Organizing independent contractors who do not have an easy way to meet is not easy. Many drivers were probably not even aware of the event, while others probably could not afford to stop working. In San Francisco, a Lyft driver honked in solidarity as he walked down Market Street after the protest. She told me that her app was turned off, but that she should definitely work later. "I need money," she said. Scrambling in the crowd, drivers with boards took note of the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of drivers who were demonstrating for the first time, inviting them to future meetings.

On Friday, when Uber will be announced publicly, the pressure on the company for a day, finally, a profit will only intensify. And the next chapter of business-worker relations will probably be even uglier. At present, the company wants to pay less drivers, while they demand more. He wants to phase out their service to the autonomous cars he is trying to develop, while drivers want the company to respect their humanity. The company wants less paperwork, while the drivers want the politicians to help them – and some politicians are listening now. When a struggling business model encounters an increasingly angry workforce, who wins?