I'm supporting my daughter. I have my dad and my mom, and they live in Africa, I also support them, in South Sudan. Because of the war in South Sudan, they are now living in Sudan. They are old people—my dad is blind, he cannot see, and my mom is there. They are old people. They don't have any support. They don't have any alternatives.
Read More“For a week, I had nothing”: Fighting for insurance coverage
I had an accident, somebody backed up and hit my car, and when I called Uber, it was an argument. They told me, “Go and call your personal insurance.” I said, “Personal insurance has nothing to do with this, because I had just dropped somebody off and had received another call I was going to.” Uber said, "Oh, your personal insurance will do it." I said "No, it's not on my insurance, I was working." It became an argument.
Read More“It was like a trick”: Uber’s bait & switch
I was a cab driver. I used to drive my for-hire vehicle, and I picked up one of the Uber employees, and we sat in the car. He said it was good. He kept calling me, we started texting one another. I talked to the drivers who drive for Uber and they said, “Yeah, we're doing good.” I knew a guy who had King County & City of Seattle for-hire licenses—he went and turned in his licenses and went to work for Uber. I went in and they told me, “If you want to work for us, you can no longer be a for-hire driver. If you want to join, change the color of your car and come join.” I said okay. I went and turned my for-hire license back in, I painted my car, and I went to work for Uber.
Read More“Whatever they put on there, just click yes—Yes, sir!”
Right now, we don't have rights. We're not employees. They have all the rights. They have the license, they send me the customers, they can decide to suspend me at any time. My license belongs to Uber. I get that license from Uber, not the city. They will take it back. It's not yours.
When I open the app and sign in, they'll send something to the phone—if you agree, click yes, if not, click no. If you say no, it closes, it's not going to activate, and you can't work anymore. You have to click yes to everything. Sometimes you don't really know what it says. But everything on there, you say yes. If you say no, you can't work. It logs you out. So whatever they put on there, just click yes—Yes, sir!No matter what.
Read More“My future intentions are not just for me”: Life outside of work
I want to go back to school and do something different. I'm an activist, a human rights activist. I want to go to law school. That's what I'm intending to do.
In my home country, my home village was burned by the government because one of the commanders rebelled against the government in our city. I have an uncle, he was burned inside his house. People got killed. The whole area got burned down. People were scared. What were we to do? So we created a human rights organization. And they elected me a leader.
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