CALIFORNIA // December 2021
LEGAL UPDATES //What happened to our wage claims?
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It covers all drivers who have driven anytime between July 2016 and December 2020 – and if Prop 22 is overturned in the courts, all time moving forward as well!
It covers all drivers who drove for the platform during that time, regardless of immigration status.
There are lots of private lawsuits that are offering settlements right now. Lots of drivers are asking us whether or not to take those settlements. It is definitely up to you – and if you need legal advice, please get it. Many of the settlement offers require you to sign away your rights to future settlements, so read the agreements carefully.
Stay tuned for more updates! We will share as soon as we hear any movement! You can access the case record at this site:
Prop 22 was written by the companies to protect them from having to pay us fairly and from paying into important programs like Unemployment Insurance. We see our wages going lower and lower - and there is really no legal protection against it under Prop 22.
In the meantime, we are watching the courts closely – the lower court has already declared Prop 22 unconstitutional – and if that decision holds through the appeal, we will return to our full labor rights in California – a wage floor of minimum wage for app-on time, plus expenses, unemployment insurance, workers comp, and more.
But how does California know if Lyft and Uber are even following the law? California is running blind unless they demand the data from these companies. It took more than 5000 of us filing stolen wage claims with the state to get California to enforce the law - and they are currently in court to get the money we earned back into our pockets.
The truth is, where drivers are earning more and being paid for all app-on time (not just engaged time), the government has demanded the data from the companies - in New York City & Washington State.
We need to do that here too. Our Accountability Campaign is in full force, with more than fifty drivers collecting their own data as we compile the reality of Prop 22 into a comprehensive report. We know that Prop 22 protects the companies from paying us what we deserve - this report will show that.
Hundreds of drivers filled in surveys about the healthcare coverage the companies said they would provide under Prop 22. What we found out is that as drivers, even with the law in place, less of us have health insurance than the general public. The report on this can be found here: https://nationalequityatlas.org/prop22 Stay tuned for the wages report!
$.32 a mile at the airport, no multiplier, no destinations, and no transparency on fares, are just some of the ways Uber and Lyft have broken promises that have hurt drivers in the last couple months.
These issues led many Rideshare Drivers United members in CA and drivers in several cities around the country to walk off the job on July 21 and to demand that the PROAct be passed in Washington. (TV Coverage of Action)
The PROAct is national legislation that would give all workers - including app-based workers - the right to organize their own unions. The legislation passed the House but now needs to pass the Senate. Members of RDU have been very active in their support of this bill - see this video.
Getting this legislation passed has been really difficult – even the John Lewis voting rights act didn’t pass the Senate. But many are continuing to fight for it: our friends at Our Revolution are launching a two week nationwide truck tour to draw attention to the PROAct, starting December 6th, going town by town, making its way through more than 10 states, starting in Phoenix, through Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York and New Jersey. If you have any interest in hooking up with the tour, drop us a note and we’ll put you in touch with the organizers.
Latino USA is a feature program distributed to more than 220 NPR stations around the country. This one hour documentary-style radio featured our own Alvaro Bolainez, Esterphanie St. Juste, Ivan Pardo, and our advocate - Veena Dubal. Worth a listen on a long drive - a great history of our fight, and how we got started. Click here to listen!
Get more involved - help build our driver union!Join RDU as a Contributing MemberWe are a driver led organization and when you step up to lead we are stronger. In particular members who can help us hold meetings in other languages help increase involvement of drivers of all backgrounds. If you want to take the next step to help organize our path to victory, there are a number of things you can do:
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