Ride-Share Drivers Are Fighting to Make the Gig Economy Fairer

No Class is an op-ed column by writer and radical organizer Kim Kelly that connects worker struggles and the current state of the American labor movement with its storied — and sometimes bloodied — past. This week’s column is on securing better job protections for Uber and Lyft drivers.
Uber and Lyft drivers including Abiye Gelaye center protest outside the Uber offices in Saugus MA.
Boston Globe

For many people, using Uber, Lyft, and other ride-share apps has become a normal part of life. If you miss your bus, the subway’s being wacky, your car breaks down, or you just want to avoid public transportation altogether, there’s now an easy option to summon a ride via your phone. Sure, it’ll cost you, but that’s the price of convenience. Unfortunately, the drivers themselves are faced with far fewer options, and their jobs are far from easy. In addition to being required to provide their own vehicles and cover expenses like gas, insurance, and maintenance, drivers say they’re at risk of “deactivation” — being fired — with little warning or recourse. Those cheap UberPool or Lyft Line rides may be easy on the consumer’s wallet, but can have a real-world negative impact for the people behind the wheel, who sometimes earn what Shona, an organizer with advocacy group Gig Workers Rising, calls “poverty wages.”

Ride-share drivers aren’t even considered official employees by the companies they work for, despite the long hours they may put in. This is a symptom of capitalism’s inherently exploitative structure and a common issue with the so-called gig economy. Gig workers (a wide-ranging classification of app-based workers that includes Uber and Lyft drivers as well as workers for apps like TaskRabbit, Postmates, DoorDash, Caviar, and many others) are classified as independent contractors. As such, many don’t have access to health benefits, basic worker protections, a minimum wage, or the right to unionize. A new law in California, Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), is seeking to change that.

After it was introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), AB5 was passed by the California state Senate on September 10; on September 18, Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law. AB5 could have huge implications for thousands of workers across the state — and, if its influence spreads and other states follow California’s lead, throughout the entire country. Shona said that AB5 received support from drivers in other cities, including Seattle and New York City (where the New York Taxi Workers Alliance tweeted, “New York is next!!!” the day AB5 became law), and that Oregon, Washington, and New York are all working on their own versions of AB5.

“We know that California can set national trends,” she told Teen Vogue. “This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It means gig companies lobby the hardest here. Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are committed to spending $90 million on a ballot initiative in California next year to kill AB5, so this means we have an important responsibility to gig workers both inside and outside California to make sure that whatever happens here for gig workers are models that makes sense for gig workers elsewhere.”

Worker misclassification is a huge problem in the U.S. As the Los Angeles Times reports, audits conducted by California employment officials found that “almost 500,000 [California] workers were wrongly treated as independent contractors.” Basically, AB5 makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors. It lays out new rules dictating when a worker should be considered an employee — namely, if they perform labor that comprises a company’s core business; if a boss directs and controls the way work is done; or if the worker hasn’t established an independent business. This is called the “ABC test,” and builds on a 2018 California Supreme Court ruling involving a delivery company called Dynamex.

The law covers a lot of ground, and isn’t focused solely on app-based workers. The Los Angeles Times reports that, according to a 2016 study by economists at Harvard and Princeton, independent contractors make up 8.4% of the U.S. workforce, roughly 12.5 million workers across industries.

Independent contractors can be found working all kinds of jobs, from those in the trucking, janitorial, construction, and delivery industries to health-care workers, education workers like adjunct professors, nail salon workers, freelance journalists, sex workers, and many others.

However, much of the conversation around AB5 and working conditions in the gig economy has focused on the Uber and Lyft drivers who have been organizing for better working conditions and a union.

Gig Workers Rising formed in 2018, and has been extremely active in the fight for ride-share drivers’ rights. They began their outreach online because gig workers don’t always have a traditional workplace, and many instead gather online to share information and build community. Since then, the organization has circulated petitions against Uber and Lyft’s deactivation policies, which they say are arbitrary, held regular meetings with drivers in the Bay Area and in Sacramento, and organized protests timed around Lyft and Uber’s IPO (initial public offering — basically the companies telling potential investors they’re open for business). (Lyft and Uber denied that the deactivation process is random, pointing Teen Vogue to their community guidelines for drivers).

“What these companies have done, and then called ‘innovation’ is just undermine the rights and protections that were fought for and won by organized workers decades ago,” Shona said. “They figured out how to undermine these protections, and then how to displace the cost of production onto the worker. This is dangerous to all workers and to the future of work in this country.”

As public support for AB5 increased and the bill became a law, Gig Workers Rising says Uber and Lyft have pushed back. “Immediately following the passage of AB5 in the Senate, both companies sent fear-mongering messages to drivers with threats of layoffs,” Shona said. “They also sent messages to passengers threatening to raise rates — essentially asking consumers to side with the companies in continuing to pay poverty wages to workers.”

Lyft told Teen Vogue only that “it’s important that both drivers and riders understand what’s at risk if we don’t fix AB5.” Uber provided Teen Vogue with a copy of the messages that a spokesperson said went out to over 1 million riders and 150,000 drivers in California, urging people to speak out against AB5. The former cautioned the law "could drastically change the rideshare experience as you’ve come to know it" and "limit Uber’s ability to connect you with the dependable rides you've come to expect." The latter told drivers that their "access to flexible work could be at risk."

AB5 supporters have pointed out that the “flexibility” argument obscures the fact that drivers still often set their schedules depending on when they’re more likely to make money. As Assemblywoman Gonzalez told the state Senate Labor Committee during an AB5 hearing, “Lyft and Uber today decide whether or not these workers are flexible. That is in their hands, not in the law.”

In a statement to Teen Vogue, Lyft director of policy communications Adrian Durbin said, “We are working on a solution that provides drivers with strong protections that include an earnings guarantee, a system of worker-directed portable benefits, and first-of-its kind industry-wide sectoral bargaining, without jeopardizing the flexibility drivers tell us they value so much. We remain focused on reaching a deal, and are confident about bringing this issue to the voters if necessary.”

Uber has also argued that the ABC test won’t apply to their drivers because “drivers’ work is outside the usual course of Uber’s business, which is serving as a technology platform for several different types of digital marketplaces,” essentially saying that transporting passengers is not part of Uber’s core business model (Assemblywoman Gonzalez was not impressed. Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart have also made statements voicing their displeasure with the new law, and warned of potential changes in their business models, from instituting set shifts to enacting noncompete rules. Meanwhile, a majority of California voters are in support of the new law, and the drivers themselves aren’t backing down from the fight.

“While Uber and Lyft continue to find ways to avoid laws protecting workers and taxpayers, we are laser focused on growing our movement to make sure AB5 is implemented and enforced to give us the change we need,” driver Mike Robinson said in a press release. “Across the Golden State, we will continue to push for the state, cities, and labor to work together to hold these billion-dollar bullies accountable and to deliver gig workers the same protections afforded to other workers in California.”

Ride-share users have a part to play too, and a duty to support driver organizing. There are many ways to help, from coming out to driver protests, amplifying drivers’ stories on social media, and setting up their own organizing groups to pressure lawmakers and the companies on behalf of drivers. Also, tipping and leaving five-star ratings for good service does make a tangible impact; as Shona said, tips help drivers survive, and a bad rating left arbitrarily for a driver can mean the difference between having a job and not having a job.

“We simply cannot let gig work as it currently operates be the future of work,” she said. “We cannot allow Uber, Lyft, and other gig-economy corporations to continue abusing their workers and [do so] in the name of innovation. We must reframe the terms of the debate and fight for living wages, strong independent unions, health care, and paid time off. We agree with our allies across the country that one job should be enough, and that’s the future of work we’re fighting for.”

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: The Human Cost of a Cheap Manicure