NYTWA Statement on Sham "Sectoral Bargaining" Bill Authored by Uber/Lyft

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

This bill authored by Uber and Lyft relegates drivers and deliveristas to second class status on every level -- from wages and safety-nets, to bargaining and unionization. The starting floor for driver earnings would be as little as $9 an hour, effectively allowing companies to slash driver pay in half. The current New York City Taxi and Limousine pay rules, which NYTWA members fought for and won to put app drivers on a path to earn a living wage, starts pay at $17.47 an hour. The bill eliminates that pay rule upon Uber and Lyft reaching an agreement with a "union" that can't strike or protest and limits bargaining for pay only when drivers are engaged on the app, so no wait time compensation. Drivers pay would also no longer be tied to consumer price index. The city would not be able to pass new rules on Uber and Lyft in any regard moving forward.

Drivers' right to New York State unemployment insurance, which we won in 2018, would effectively be eliminated. Virtually no driver would qualify for unemployment under the scheme laid out in the bill. In exchange for a pay cut and for rolling back unemployment benefits, the companies would install a sham 'union' with no election or right to strike, protest, or boycott; the company gets to decide which union gets to communicate with workers, and the "selection process" requires only 10% of drivers to support the union. Then the so-called union gets paid through customer surcharges -- no organizing, no worker voice. It turns unions into a customer-funded liberal charity instead of a means to build worker power.

The bill is an insult and affront to real bargaining, unionization and worker organizing. The bill is especially timely for the companies as they look to weaken momentum for the PRO Act and secure themselves a carve out.

The bill reads like Uber's fantasy novel. They get everything they want: ultimate deregulation, a phony union to give them cover, and workers at their mercy with no labor law or right to strike to build their power.

This bill needs to be shredded.

###