Uber, Lyft Drivers To Strike In NYC Wednesday

NEW YORK CITY – A strike by drivers from Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing apps is expected to leave thousands of New York City commuters needing to find another way of traveling during Wednesday morning's rush.

Protests are planned in at least 10 cities nationwide, including NYC, according to Rideshare Drivers United- Los Angeles. The group called for strikes on all ride-hailing platforms beginning at midnight.

Drivers in some cities plan to shut off their apps for between 12 hours to 24 hours, while others – including those in New York – plan to strike for only a couple hours.

The move comes shortly after Lyft started trading its stock on the public market in late March and ahead of Uber’s much-anticipated initial public offering this week, The Washington Post reported. Uber was expected to raise roughly $9 billion in its IPO.

Most ride-hailing drivers work part-time. Lyft told The Post in a statement that access to “flexible, extra income” makes a large difference for millions of people and that its driver’s hourly pay has climbed over the last two years.

Uber said its drivers are at the “heart” of its service and that it “can’t succeed without them.”

In New York, drivers with Uber, Lyft, Juno and Via voted to strike. That strike was planned to last two hours during the rush-hour morning commute, starting at 7 a.m. A rally is then planned outside the headquarters of Uber, Lyft and the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission in Long Island City.

The citywide strike is meant to call for increased job security, “livable” incomes and fare regulations.

“I'm striking for my kid's future. I have a 5-year-old son, and I drive for Uber to support him,” Sonam Lama, an Uber driver and member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said in a release. “But it's becoming harder and harder. First Uber cut the rates, then they put too many cars on the roads so there weren't enough fares to go around.”

The group wants Uber to answer to workers, Lama added, not to investors.

“The gig economy is all about exploiting workers by taking away our rights,” said Lama. “It has to stop. Uber is the worst actor in the gig economy. Uber claims that we are independent contractors even though they set our rates and control our workday.”

In Los Angeles, 4,400 members of Rideshare Drivers United are demanding that Uber “immediately reverse” a recent 25 percent cut. They also want both companies to guarantee that drivers receive a minimum rate of $28 an hour, which the group says equates to $17 an hour after expenses.

Drivers were considered independent “driver partners” initially, but that changed when the State Department of Labor ruled in 2017 that drivers in New York were actually employees.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.