Massachusetts rideshare drivers made labour history last week by forming the first officially recognised rideshare union in the United States. Almost 70,000 rideshare drivers in the state can now bargain collectively after years of resistance from the platforms that profit from their labour, including companies such as Uber and Lyft.
This is a milestone victory for the US labour movement in pushing back against the gig economy which is purposely built with an innate contradiction for workers - despite generating enormous value for tech platforms, many drivers still struggle to earn a stable, safe and living wage.
Rideshare platforms claim to provide flexibility and innovation while simultaneously shifting most of the economic risk onto workers, with the promised flexibility often coming at the cost of worker autonomy and dignity. Drivers absorb the costs of fuel, insurance, vehicle maintenance, and unpredictable wages, and can be “deactivated” with little transparency or recourse.
The newly formed App Drivers Union is backed by the Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and can now begin contract negotiations with Uber and Lyft to safeguard the working conditions of rideshare drivers. Issues at the bargaining table will most likely include pay, driver safety and deactivation, which is when drivers lose access to an app.
For the drivers to get to this point of securing representation an existing union had to file a petition with the state’s Department of Labor Relations to show that at least 5 percent of drivers had designated that union as their representative.
Then, the union had to obtain certification from the state in one of two ways: either through a vote where a majority of active drivers say they want union representation, or by the union showing that at least 25 percent of active drivers have designated it as their bargaining representative. Through a statewide ballot initiative, voters backed the measure with 54% in support and 46% against. The ballot measure made it legal for ride-share drivers to organize and bargain as a collective but did not automatically give driver’s union representation.
On May 15, the Department of Labor Relations confirmed that the App Drivers Union had showed that it had been designated as the bargaining representative for at least 32 percent of active ride-share drivers, clearing the 25 percent threshold. Then there was a seven-day waiting period, which ended at 5 p.m. on 22 May, before the union could be officially certified.
At a time when much public discussion about technology focuses on replacement, automation, and isolation, these drivers chose collective action over individual frustration. They proved that even in an economy designed to keep workers separated — each alone in their car, connected only through an app — people can still organize together.
This is an impressive win in the context of United States employers’ culture of “union busting”. It is estimated that US employers spend at minimum $1.7 billion annually to oppose unions by hiring “union avoidance” consultants and law firms to fight back against worker efforts to organize. Companies routinely deploy mandatory anti-union meetings, targeted messaging campaigns and outside legal advisers as part of broader efforts to discourage workers from supporting union drives.
Similar rideshare unionization efforts are currently underway in other US states.
Read more: Mass. rideshare drivers become first in the U.S. to unionize | GBH