Perspective: Why we need to address the demands of striking ride-hailing service drivers
A ride-hailing service driver picks up passengers at O'Hare Airport on April 10 in Chicago. By Mary Angelica Painter Mary Angelica Painter is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Missouri - St. Louis and the Confluence Chapter graduate fellow for the Scholars Strategy Network. May 8 at 6:00 AM Today, drivers for ride-hailing services “walked out” because of their paltry pay and lack of benefits.
Thanks to the strike, city officials, taxi fleets and even popular media outlets grew concerned with the plight of the drivers — and with the need to keep the peace in a labor conflict tinged with violence. The need for robust policy moved to the fore. The strike and its aftermath reveal how ride-hailing service drivers today can refocus the narrative on their suffering, and not on the companies such as Uber and Lyft.
Becoming a taxi driver was an important option for poor and unemployed people seeking financial relief, because the barriers to entry were so low: Virtually anyone who wanted to drive a taxi could start taking passengers around the city. But those very low barriers to entry made it hard for taxi drivers to survive. “Fare wars” drove fleet owners to cut commissions and costs.
But in the absence of effective solutions, the protests continued. By March 22, the number of strikers had dwindled, but their protests remained violent. That day, approximately 200 striking drivers marched to City Hall, leaving taxis stranded in the road. Police were frenzied, and protesters surrounded the mayor on his way home from lunch. He urged them to avoid “rough stuff.”
Today, Uber is seeking to raise at least $9 billion from investors in an initial public offering , which promises to turn shareholders into billionaires. Anticipating Uber’s IPO, Gig Workers Rising, a community of app and platform workers including drivers from Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing apps, planned a protest at Uber’s headquarters in Seattle. Drivers in cities around the country are turning off their apps in solidarity.
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