RIDEGURU
It was *likely* the largest-ever gig worker protest to date.
If you missed all the activities from around the nation, this is a good article that captures what was happening on the street. The impact of the strike is still unclear, but apparently, it did get the coverage the organizers were looking for.
the effort attracted a ton of media interest, and it also garnered the support of high-profile politicians on the left, including presidential candidates like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. “Your Direct Action for today: Don’t take an Uber or Lyft just for the day. (Just today! Cabs are fine! You can do it!),” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, urging her followers not to cross the digital picket line. Even technocratic whiz kid Mayor Pete Buttigieg tweeted that he was down with the driver’s strike.
Take a look at some of the driver feedback below. Anecdotal but good stuff.
Their point was that Uber needs to pay up. At a protest in front of 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 a mile. Now, he says, he gets about 92 cents a mile. At most jobs, he lamented, you’d think that you’d be making more after six years, not less.
Comments
I've followed and driven with Uber since they first hit my market area nearly 4 years ago, and this is the FIRST time I've seen any type of driver protest actually make it to the national news level.
The result, HOPEFULLY, will be that fewer people will sign up to drive since now a higher percentage of people are aware how poorly it actually pays.
The ONLY thing that will EVER cause Uber to pay more will be to attract (and keep) drivers. Until the continuous flow of newbies is slowed and their driver presence begins to decline, we will never see driver rates increase.
Hoorah to all the drivers that were willing to take a stand and give up a days earnings to do it. These people are the real heroes. And for all the drivers (in the effected markets) that are so self serving and self centered as to try and "hog the extra rides" on the day of the protest - remember folks, the CHI will come back to ya. I promise!!!!
I hope you are right. I think the big reason it made it to national news was the IPO today. They really timed this strike well. But, sadly, I am afraid it's still going to have basically no effect. And there won't be more opportunities like this for such a high profile strike.
Oh well.
I mean, the gig worker industry is like, what, 7 years old, maybe? Not exactly saying much...
But I am glad it got as much press as it did. Hope it helps. If a bunch of drivers hang up their keys it will help us all.
"Terrify" Uber? I don't think so. They don't give a damn about it. What's going to happen? Are some drivers going to quit? Big deal. Uber has no shortage of people wanting to drive. And, this whole situation hurts Uber's competitors as much as it hurts them.
Uber will be terrified the day everyone jumps ship to Lyft, and not a day sooner. And I think we all know that's not going to happen.
I enjoyed reading the article but this is a hype article on a hyped event.
Users had no problems getting rides on Wednesday. Airports were full of Ubers and in all the cities listed, drivers were showing up in 3 minutes.
I even heard that there were MORE riders on the streets, because they thought they can get better surges and make more money.