Ding Dong the Bill is Dead! Uber/Lyft's Sham Bargaining Bill is Dead in Albany!

Albany, NY: Uber/Lyft's sham bargaining bill has beed declared officially dead for this legislative session in Albany after labor and community groups and progressive elected leaders, including State Senate Labor Chair Jessica Ramos, fought to kill it. Uber, Lyft, and Via drivers who are members of NYTWA mobilized protests against the bill outside of Cuomo's NYC office and in Albany. Not only did workers kill the bill this session, they stopped it from even being introduced.

For more on the fight against the bill, visit: NYTWA.org/nofakeunion or twitter.com/NYTWA

NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi Desai (She/Her) released the following statement:

"Uber thought that their old playbook would work in New York State in 2021. But the narrative has changed. People see through their company union and their boss lies. Labor and community groups came together like never before and sent Uber and Lyft crawling away from this legislative session with their tails between their legs.

"Of course, the companies and their shills will be back at it next session with new billion dollar tricks up their sleeves to try to roll back the rights app drivers have won. But make no mistake: Unless the companies recognize they can't roll back rights or deny drivers the economic floor granted to all other workers, there is no conversation to be had in any room with these unscrupulous bosses, just much more organizing to be done on the streets.

"68,000 New York State app drivers got tens of millions of dollars in unemployment benefits during the pandemic because of employee rights we fought for and won. We aren’t giving that up, ever. And we aren’t going to allow Uber and Lyft to crush the promise of a future with more labor protections that will come with the PRO Act.

"We’ll be ready to hand their tushies back to them again next session, and every session after that until they stop trying to use their fancy technology as a tool to exploit workers."