California’s Uber and Lyft drivers are one step closer to forming a statewide union.
The state agency overseeing driver organizing announced Friday that the California Gig Workers Union has shown that it has the support of 30% of active drivers.
That’s a crucial threshold — under state law, the organization will be certified as drivers’ collective-bargaining organization in 30 days unless a group of drivers officially challenges it within that period.
“I’m so excited,” said Hector Castellanos, one of the organizers of the union drive. “I’ve been fighting for this for so long.”
Drivers like Castellanos who work via ride-hailing apps have been complaining for years about substandard pay, a lack of benefits, and an opaque and unfair process through which Uber and Lyft can deactivate them, blocking them from earning a living. Many such as Castellanos have been pushing to form a union to bargain for better pay and working conditions.
Passed and signed into law last year, Assembly Bill 1340 provided a path for drivers to form such a unit that could negotiate for a statewide contract with both of the two leading ride-hailing companies at the same time.
The law set up a multistep process for a union to get official recognition from the Public Employment Relations Board, the state agency overseeing the process.
First, a prospective union has to get recognition from PERB as an official drivers organization. Next, it has to show it has the support of 10% of active drivers — those that have driven at least the median number of rides given by all drivers statewide in the last six months.
Once it has the support of 10% of active drivers, a prospective union can get from PERB the names and contact information of all active drivers in order to recruit them to its organizing effort.
If it then shows it has the support of 30% of active drivers, PERB will designate it the official union 30 days later unless that designation is challenged.
The only groups that can challenge such a designation — and force a vote on unionization — are another officially recognized drivers organization that represents 30% of active drivers, or a group representing 30% of active drivers who oppose the formation of a union.
Although there were at least three drivers organizations in California before the law passed, only the Gig Workers Union — which is backed by the large and politically powerful Service Employees International Union — has sought PERB’s recognition as an official drivers organization. It is also the only group that has shown it has the support of 10% of drivers, much less 30%.
“We don’t expect any challenges at this point,” said David Green, president of SEIU Local 721, a Los Angeles-based union that was helping to lead the effort to organize drivers.
Another prospective union, Rideshare Drivers United, had been attempting to garner the support of 10% of drivers. Nicole Moore, its president, told The Examiner it got close to reaching that threshold.
But RDU was hobbled by not having a large group of paid organizers and not being able to work with an established union to organize drivers, she said.
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In terms of trying to form a statewide union, “we will be stepping aside,” Moore said.
In separate emailed statements, officials at San Francisco-based Uber and Lyft indicated their companies planned to work with the Gig Workers Union.
"As this new process moves forward, we’re committed to engaging in good faith,” Lyft spokesman C.J. Macklin said.
“We look forward to our work ahead with the California Gig Workers Union and the state,” said Ramona Prieto, Uber’s head of public policy and communications for the western United States.
According to PERB, California has 100,307 active drivers, meaning the Gig Workers Union had to show it had the support of around 30,000 drivers. During the first half of the year, the median number of rides given by all drivers was 475, or about 2.6 per day, according to the agency.
Although union support is gauged by looking at active drivers, a statewide union would represent all Uber and Lyft drivers.
Gig Workers Union reached the 30% support threshold just two months after hitting the 10% mark and getting access to the list of active drivers. Most drivers the union contacted reacted positively, both Green and Castellanos said.
Castellanos, who said he spends about 40 hours a week driving for Uber and Lyft, estimated that 90% of the drivers he spoke with were pro-union.
“They really want to see a change,” he said.
Despite being outpaced by the Gig Workers Union, RDU doesn’t plan to go away, Moore said.
While she said she’s hopeful that the establishment of an official union and the contract negotiations will lead to better conditions for drivers, she said she thinks the companies need to be pressured in multiple ways to achieve that end.
RDU is currently involved in a lawsuit seeking to weaken or overturn Proposition 22, a 2020 state measure that designated drivers as contractors not employees of the ride-hail companies and set certain pay and reimbursement rates.
It’s also involved in another lawsuit that argues Uber and Lyft owe back pay to state drivers who should have been treated as employees prior to Prop. 22.
“We going to continue to do the work we’ve been doing and we think is essential to drivers’ rights,” Moore said.
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