Demand Highlight: Rideshare Living Wage & Safety Ordinance

How did the Rideshare Living Wage & Safety Ordinance come to be?

The Rideshare Living Wage and Safety Ordinance have been a work in progress for nearly 5 years. Workers began organizing in 2018 when Uber and Lyft began cutting pay in preparation for their IPOs. After years of talking to workers, three main issues coalesced: wages, workers’ protections (such as unfair deactivations from the app); and driver safety. The rideshare living wage and safety ordinance is a culmination of the conversations that we have had with thousands of workers over the years to address the issues that affect them the most.

What would you like to hear from the candidates and what is the importance of the PUP’s mayoral forum? 

Drivers have fought for years to get lawmakers to take their situation seriously. There is a tendency for people to minimize the injustices done to these workers because they are not considered “employees” due to the gig economy’s misuse of the independent contractor status. Workers also have to contend with organizations trying to capitalize off of their exploitation without actually helping them. We are eager to find a leader who takes our plight seriously and will protect us from predatory corporations and organizations that either exploit us outright or falsely represent themselves as allies while undercutting our organizing power for personal gain.

What does a progressive agenda mean to your organization?

A progressive agenda means not just shrugging shoulders when it comes to reining in greedy app corporations that exploit workers. So many times workers have been told that there’s nothing that can be done for them because the laws to protect them simply do not exist. The bottom line is the law needs to catch up to what these corporations are doing, and we need someone who is not afraid to stand up and make the changes necessary to hold them accountable. This may mean making decisions with no precedent, and we need someone who is unafraid to do so.