We are rideshare drivers, driving on Uber and Lyft and many other platforms, who are building our own organization to fight for the dignity of our work and better lives.
Since the day we started driving and realized how exploitative the rideshare companies can be, we have all been organizing: finding other drivers for support, sharing strategies to earn better money, and taking collective action.
The seeds of Rideshare Drivers United started when drivers took a big pay cut and organized two strikes at LAX in August, 2017. Many of us stood together, but it was clear that in order to win with these mega tech companies, we needed to build a much larger and stronger organization of drivers, and to develop a strategic plan to win a real voice on the job, fair pay, and dignity to the work we do.
In 2018 we formed Rideshare Drivers United, and started building power, driver to driver, to fight for the dignity of our profession and to ensure we have a real say over our working conditions in rideshare.
By building real connections to each other: driver to driver: Tech companies count on us not knowing or talking with each other. So we developed a hybrid tech/organizing model to connect us through our phones. We believe the best organizers are drivers – so we are learning the skills of organizing, and building our own organization – driver to driver.
By growing our organization to scale: In California alone we estimate there are at least 300,000 rideshare drivers, and at least 60,000 of us doing the work full-time. The more of us who join together in our organization, the stronger we will be to fight for our rights. In our first year, we’ve grown to 12,000 California driver members – and we must continue to grow. In addition, we are working with other drivers across the country to help them start their own chapters.
By fighting for issues we care about - through strategy, unity, and disciplined actions - and winning: It’s not enough to protest - we have to win. We are a united nations of drivers, here and across the country, and we’ve come together unified by the issues that hurt drivers and our profession: unfair pay, no voice on the job, unjust deactivations. We take ourselves seriously and work with supportive elected officials, lawyers, and experienced organizers to plan strategies to win. We work in coalition with passengers and concerned community - to support transit solutions to reduce congestions & carbon emissions. We regularly vote on the issues of most importance to us, and are unified around our driver bill of rights.
We are supported by grants and member donations and will never take money from rideshare companies to build our organization.
