LAX: Uber, Lyft Drivers At Car Caravan Demand Better Conditions

MARINA DEL REY, CA — Hundreds of ride-hailing service drivers organizing with the Mobile Workers Alliance held a car caravan at LAX Thursday to demand better working conditions.

Drivers from companies such as Uber and Lyft are demanding that they "stop cheating drivers out of basic workplace protections and drop a ballot measure designed to buy the companies' way out of following California law."

Drivers met up at 10 a.m. at the departures deck at LAX then started the car caravan at 11 a.m. from 10158 S. Concourse Way and along Century Boulevard.

“With the COVID-19 crisis, drivers are facing severe economic hardship. For far too many of us, a $300 expense could mean having to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table or paying fines to avoid having our accounts deactivated,” Mike Robinson, a Mobile Workers Alliance leader and Lyft driver in Los Angeles, said in a news release.

“While we’re forced to shoulder this burden, Uber and Lyft are spending tens of millions of dollars on a ballot initiative to exclude themselves from following the law or having to provide us with the workplace protections we are entitled to,” Robinson said.

On June 9 the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates rideshare companies, restated that rideshare drivers are the companies’ employees if they meet the ABC test under AB5. This was a blow for rideshare drivers, who argue that the coronavirus pandemic has caused financial hardships in addition to little financial security from their employers.

- City News Service and Patch Staffer Nicole Charky contributed to this report.

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