Driving For Dignity
Thousands of Seattle workers drive for app-based transportation companies like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar. In the face of a rapidly changing economy, we stand firm that our rights must be respected. While we appreciate innovation, new technologies should not be an excuse to strip us of our basic dignity or take away our fundamental right to act together to improve our lives.
Less than an hour ago, by a unanimous vote, Seattle City Council passed legislation closing a loophole in workers rights laws so that taxi, for-hire, and on-demand drivers can organize and bargain over their pay and working conditions.
All over Seattle, passengers and drivers for on-demand services like Uber and Lyft, as well as other supporters are standing up to say: It's time to make sure drivers for companies like Uber & Lyft get the same access to workers' rights as everyone else. We all have the right to organize with other workers and bargain over our pay and our work.
Seattle City Council: Drivers and passengers deserve rights in the Uber economy. It's time to pass the "Voice for Drivers" legislation.
Who's supporting this bill, and why? Here are some of our voices:
This story from San Francisco will sound awfully familiar to anyone who read about Seattle Uber driver Takele Gobena, who was kicked off Uber's system in August the same day he spoke out at a press conference about Uber's low wages. From the San Francisco Examiner this week:
An Uber driver who critiqued the company’s top-brass at a highly publicized event now tells the San Francisco Examiner he’s facing backlash from the tech company.
Are you an Uber or Lyft customer with questions about how these companies treat their workers?
Drivers in Seattle have been coming out and speaking publicly about issues with their job—the low pay, a lack of communication from the enormous companies controlling their access to work, how scary it is for the company to have all the power.
On October 2, the Seattle City Council has an opportunity to vote on innovative new legislation that takes an important step in the fight for driver and passenger rights in the Uber economy: It would give drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft the right to organize and collectively bargain with the multibillion-dollar companies they drive for.
Seattle City Council is debating innovative legislation that would give Uber and Lyft drivers the right to organize and negotiate with the billion-dollar companies they work for, and there couple be a key committee vote on Friday, October 2. Answer a few questions to build-your-own message to council, and we’ll pass it along to them before the meeting.
So for the next 24 hours ahead of the vote, we’ll be using out twitter account to present hundreds of signatures on our Bill of Rights for the Uber economy. Because what better way to show the breadth of passengers and drivers support then to sent the signatures into twitter feeds on smartphones across the city for an entire day?
We're asking every Seattle City Councilmember & candidate to add their names to the passenger/driver Bill of Rights, which spells out basic principles that everyone in the Uber economy should be able to expect — like safe transportation, living wages, open communication, privacy, nondiscrimination, and a voice in the rules.
Seattle City Council is considering an innovative proposal to address the fact that Uber & Lyft take advantage of a loophole to classify their drivers as “independent contractors” rather than employees — even though the app companies have total control over access to customers, they get to set the minimum payment for a ride, the pay per mile and per minute, and the price of insurance. (And even though the companies can change the pay whenever they want.) Uber & Lyft offer extraordinary convenience — but passengers have a right to know that their fare dollars are going to support good jobs and living wage for drivers, not just multi-billion-dollar valuations for investors in the app-based economy.
Uber and Lyft driver Takele Gobena joined in a press conference at City Hall on Monday to tell his story: After driving 55 hours a week to put himself through school, he brought his earnings, mileage, and hours to an accountant last year for help with his taxes. It turns out his hourly wage came to less than $3 an hour...
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