After a growing furor among Uber drivers in New York City in 2016 over plunging incomes, Uber relented and made a rare concession: It agreed to recognize a local driver group.
The group, the Independent Drivers Guild, was not quite a union, but it would meet regularly with Uber management and advocate for drivers. Still, there was lingering suspicion that the guild was a pawn for Uber since it accepts money from the powerful company.
But
two years later, the guild is taking an increasingly confrontational
stance toward Uber as it pushes for higher pay and a cap on new drivers.
Backed
by veterans from the Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders presidential
campaigns, the guild is drawing attention to the plight of Uber drivers
struggling to make a living — just like taxi drivers.
After a taxi driver killed himself last month — one of six driver suicides
since December — the Independent Drivers Guild called for new
regulations in stark terms, saying city leaders had ignored “widespread
exploitation.” While Uber as a corporate behemoth has eviscerated the
yellow cab industry, front-line workers in both worlds share a common
bond over their economic desperation.
“How many more of our families must be shattered before the city will act?” said Sohail Rana, an Uber driver and guild member.
Yet some continue to doubt the guild’s independence.
Leaders will not say how much Uber pays the guild as part of its
agreement to represent drivers or how many dues-paying members it has.
But officials at Uber are hardly pleased by the group’s decision to go
after its bottom line.
The guild’s
campaign comes as New York City is considering stricter rules for Uber
and other ride-hailing services that have flooded the streets with
vehicles. Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council are under pressure
to address several issues: setting fair wages for drivers, reducing
street congestion and stabilizing the crashing values of taxi
medallions.
Last Monday, Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, visited City Hall as part of a global charm offensive
to repair the company’s image. Mr. Khosrowshahi met with Corey Johnson,
the City Council speaker, who said recently that it had been a mistake not to rein in Uber’s growth in 2015, when Mr. de Blasio tried unsuccessfully to institute a cap.
Uber has become hugely popular in New York, and its trips outpaced yellow taxis
for the first time last year. There are about 65,000 vehicles
affiliated with Uber in the city, which provide more than 400,000 trips
per day, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Lyft, its main
rival, tallies about 112,000 trips per day. City law caps the number of
yellow taxis at about 13,500; they typically make about 300,000 trips
each day.
New Yorkers get cheap rides in nice vehicles — and a respite from the failing subway — while Uber is moving toward an initial public offering next year at a value of $48 billion. But many of the drivers who New Yorkers and Uber executives rely on are feeling hopeless.
Drivers
are trapped in predatory car loans. The money they make from each trip
is relatively paltry after fees, like sales tax, are deducted and after
Uber takes its cut of more than 20 percent.
Pedro
Acosta began driving for Uber shortly after the service arrived in New
York in 2011. At first, he made a good living. Uber enticed drivers,
promising they would make $5,000 during their first month. But then the
app started reducing its rates.
“They
dropped the price so much,” Mr. Acosta said at his apartment in East
New York, Brooklyn, the day after he worked an 11-hour shift. “We have
to work so many hours.”
Mr. Acosta
made 4,457 trips for Uber last year, or more than 85 rides each week. He
made about $30,000 after expenses, according to his tax returns, an
amount that he said was difficult to live off in an increasingly
expensive city. He has six children, and his wife works giving massages
and facials.
His
expenses add up quickly — a $750 monthly car payment, insurance, gas,
oil changes, professional clothing. To buy his 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander
SUV, Mr. Acosta took out a loan with an interest rate of 17.7 percent.
He makes a point of wearing a tie in hopes of improving his rating as a
driver and making his children proud.
A
survey by the Independent Drivers Guild found that one-fifth of drivers
had household incomes of less than $30,000 per year. A survey by a
competing group, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents
taxi and ride-hailing service drivers, found that about 44 percent of
drivers made incomes between $20,000 and $39,000.
Mr.
Acosta, a guild member, pays $18 in dues each month. The group has
given him a voice, he said, like when it fought to allow passengers to
tip from within the app — an idea Uber embraced last year.
Most riders still do not tip, though. “They got used to not paying a tip,” he said.
The guild is now calling for change. It wants a minimum pay rate
for app drivers, similar to the metered fare taxi drivers earn; a limit
on Uber’s commission; and a halt to licensing additional drivers.
The
City Council is considering a series of bills, including one that would
restrict the number of for-hire vehicles. At the same time, the city’s
taxi commission is studying driver pay and is planning to propose new
rules this summer to address the problem.
Meera Joshi, the city’s taxi commissioner, said an influx of vehicles has made it much harder for drivers to find trips.
“The
pay, from what we can see, has been declining, in part because of the
competition among apps to offer the lowest passenger price,” Ms. Joshi
said.
Alix Anfang, a spokeswoman for Uber, said the driver pay study was a good idea.
“We
believe that all full-time drivers in N.Y.C. — taxi, limousine and Uber
alike — should be able to make a living wage and support their
families,” Ms. Anfang said.
The
drivers who have taken their lives were from across the industry — men
who drove taxis and for livery and black car services. The latest suicide was Abdul Saleh, a yellow taxi driver who leased his cab and died last week, according to the Taxi Workers Alliance.
In light of the taxi driver suicides, Mr. Khosrowshahi said he would support a fee on Uber trips to pay for a “hardship fund”
to support taxi medallion owners who are struggling. Medallions once
sold for more than $1 million and now go for as low as $175,000.
Bhairavi
Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance,
slammed the “hardship fund” as a public relations stunt and an attempt
to avoid new regulations. Ms. Desai is a frequent critic of the
Independent Drivers Guild, arguing that its leaders cannot be trusted
because they receive money from Uber. Ms. Desai says the guild’s attacks
on Uber are meant to give the impression that it is not cooperating
with the company.
“They have to create tension to have some level of credibility,” Ms. Desai said.
The taxi workers alliance, which was founded in 1998 and has about 4,000 dues-paying members, has also pressed for new rules, including a vehicle cap and minimum fare rate.
But
the Independent Drivers Guild’s message is more polished. The guild,
which is affiliated with a regional branch of the International
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, hired Revolution
Messaging, the company behind Mr. Sanders’s digital campaign in 2016. It was founded by staffers from Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Last
week, the guild’s executive director, Ryan Price, criticized Mr.
Khosrowshahi’s “hardship fund” as another fee that would hit workers.
“Uber’s
C.E.O. needs to address the widespread hardship faced by drivers for
his own company before considering taking another cut from our
sub-minimum wage pay,” Mr. Price said.
Facing
low wages and long hours, some Uber drivers have quit. But Mr. Acosta
keeps working for the company because he needs a job with flexibility.
One of his sons has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. He has to take
him to many appointments.
“I don’t have any other choice,” Mr. Acosta said.
Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
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