Local Wins for Gig Drivers Could Translate to National Gains
As rideshare and delivery drivers rack up local legislative wins, the idea of gig work legislation on a federal level no longer seems farfetched.
Delivery drivers and gig workers hold signs as they protest in front of Uber headquarters on October 12, 2022, in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
The trend toward gig work has increased in recent years, and it’s easy to see why the business class has encouraged this. Gig work is often transitory and isolating, which keeps workers from forming bonds and acting collectively. Gig work obviates the need for companies to pay for benefits like health care. Gig work, essentially, allows employers to offload many of the costs associated with a workforce onto the workers themselves.
Proponents for the independent contractor model will point to increased flexibility and autonomy and the capacity for workers to set their own hours and only work when they want. And there is some truth to that. But for many gig workers, especially those in rideshare and delivery sectors, more freedom often comes with less protection, and “being your own boss” doesn’t amount to much when you can’t afford to take any time off.
“I work forty hours a week minimum,” said Elliott Awatt, an Uber driver in Denver, Colorado. “Seems like the rideshare companies are taking more and more from drivers every day.”
As difficult as it may be for workers to navigate the comminuting dystopia of the freelance economy, there are new examples of successful organizing. Denver and Minneapolis are two places where first-time pro-driver laws in cities and states are acting as templates for other locales, demonstrating that local gains for drivers can have nationwide consequences.
From Seattle to Minneapolis
Building on the success of Washington State, where a statewide law that raises drivers’ pay and provides for sick time and workers compensation went into effect in 2024, pro-driver groups and city council allies in Minneapolis started with a city ordinance that established minimum take rates for drivers that would raise wages. Uber and Lyft squawked and threatened to leave Minnesota altogether if the ordinance passed. The ordinance did pass, but before the law came into effect, the governor — who the previous year vetoed a pro-driver bill — stepped in and brokered a deal between the gig companies and the coalition behind the ordinance, which resulted in a statewide law setting pay standards.
The take rates in this law are lower than the ordinance, but they still represent good gains for drivers. And the law does not codify gig drivers as independent contractors, which the companies want and the Washington law does. So Uber and Lyft are staying in Minnesota, and drivers will see a wage increase. Now similar efforts to implement wage-raising laws for drivers are in the works in Chicago.
The difficulties faced by gig drivers nationwide are myriad. However, two of them have just been addressed in Colorado. A rideshare drivers union called Colorado Independent Drivers United (CIDU), its parent union Communications Workers of America Union (CWA) Local 7777, and coalition partners were able to get two bills passed in the Colorado state legislature (HB24-1129 and SB24-75). They were signed into law by Colorado governor Jared Polis on June 5. These bills establish a driver resource center, provide enhanced deactivation protection for both delivery and transportation drivers, and require transparency measures for gig companies. They were the first legislation of its kind to pass in the United States, and CIDU-CWA 7777 hopes other states use it as a guide to win similar protections for drivers.
Fully Automated Layoffs
These laws protect drivers from Uber and Lyft’s arbitrary and volatile deactivation processes —drivers have very little control or recourse to being deactivated, which can happen for any number of reasons: customer complaints (which drivers cannot appeal or even know specifically what they are); mistakes during random background checks; facial recognition software problems (which affect drivers of color far worse than white drivers); language issues with drivers whose primary tongue is not English; and many more. Even though drivers are supposedly independent contractors, they can be fired remotely through the app at any time, plunging their lives into financial precarity.
The Colorado legislation doesn’t fix all of this, but it does provide drivers in the state with greater recourse and more protections. Additionally, the transparency requirements mandate that gig companies show both customers and drivers not only how much a ride (or delivery) costs but how much the company takes and how much the driver gets. This is crucial because riders often assume, when they’re being charged a lot, that the driver is not only responsible for exorbitant rates but that they are also getting a large portion of the proceeds, which can foster enmity and resentment with the customer (as well as no tips), even though neither of these things are true.
This legislation is brand new, so we’ll have to see if other driver groups in other states follow this example, but there are already nationwide coalitional efforts underway to pressure Uber and Lyft around the issues of deactivation and transparency. The Activate Respect campaign is one such effort.
Big Tech Bullies
Made up of drivers unions and advocacy groups — including CIDU-CWA 7777, Chicago Gig Alliance, Gig Workers Rising, PowerSwitch Action, and Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE) — Activate Respect kicked off Tuesday, June 25, with actions in Denver, Chicago, and San Jose. Large groups of drivers coalesced in these three cities and engaged the public and local news media to bring attention to these issues drivers face every day and put some heat on the companies responsible for them. This campaign is ongoing, with more actions planned throughout this year and into next.
“Drivers across the country are all facing the same bullying tactics from Uber and Lyft. That’s why it’s so important that we come together in campaigns like Activate Respect,” said Bernard Moses, a worker in Chicago who has been driving rideshare for eight years. “Let’s face it — with Uber pushing down our pay, most of the people I know have to cash out of the app every day just to get by, so even a day or two of deactivation can be catastrophic. As one driver it’s hard to change things, but together we can hold Uber and Lyft accountable to drivers, passengers, and our communities that depend on us.”
Yet pressure campaigns can only go so far. “These companies won’t give an inch unless you make them,” said Brian Winkler, executive vice president of CWA 7777. “And the only way that’s possible is through worker power.”
All of these efforts are unfolding amid a backdrop of growing labor militancy in the United States. The fight against gig companies thus far has been waged on local fronts, but the coalitional work burgeoning between gig driver unions and various advocacy groups, including elected officials, could be the augur of more widespread gains. As more and more drivers in different localities take up the fight, the idea of pro-driver legislation on a federal level doesn’t seem farfetched.
Even economic sectors like gig work, which are structured to atomize workers, can be successfully organized. In concert with their counterparts in other industries, more and more workers in the gig-driving arena are agitating, and rideshare companies can’t just ignore them anymore.