AB 1340, which is now on Gov. Newsom’s desk, would allow ride-hail drivers to form a statewide union that would bargain across the industry
For years, Uber and Lyft drivers have said they feel like they’ve gotten a bad and ever-worsening deal from the ride-hailing companies. Now, many of them in California say they feel like they’re finally going to get the chance to do something about it.
The state Legislature on Tuesday gave its final approval to a bill that would allow ride-hail drivers to form a statewide union to bargain with Uber, Lyft and other companies in the industry over pay, benefits and disciplinary procedures. That approval — which sent the legislation to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is expected to sign it — left Nick Cabalar “ecstatic,” he said. “It’s something we’ve been long fighting for,” said Cabalar, a Castro Valley resident who has been driving for Uber and Lyft since 2016.Passed by the state Senate on Monday by a 29-10 vote and by the Assembly a day later by a 60-15 margin, Assembly Bill 1340 would give California drivers the right to form a single union that would bargain with the ride-hail companies all at once. Under the legislation, active drivers — those who drive the median number of rides or more — would have the right to form the union, but the organization would represent all ride-hailing drivers in the state. According to labor leaders, there are some 800,000 ride-hail drivers in California. Giving those workers the ability to organize represents the biggest increase in collective-bargaining rights since the federal government passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, AB 1340 co-author Buffy Wicks said Tuesday on the Assembly floor in urging her colleagues to vote for it.“That’s a very big deal,” said Wicks, who represents Oakland. AB 1340 represents the latest effort by policymakers and labor representatives to improve working conditions for ride-hailing drivers. That effort stems back to Assembly Bill 5 — signed into law by Newsom in 2019 — which designated drivers as employees of the companies, making them subject to the minimum-wage law and eligible for unemployment benefits. That law was overturned for ride-hail and delivery drivers by company-backed Proposition 22, which designated such workers as independent contractors and set bespoke minimum-wage guarantees and reimbursement rates. Drivers and labor groups fought Prop. 22 all the way to the Supreme Court of California. The court upheld the law in a ruling last year, but it also let stand a lower-court ruling that permitted the Legislature to amend Prop. 22 for the purposes of giving drivers collective-bargaining rights with a simple majority in the Legislature. That ruling paved the way for AB 1340, which otherwise would have required a seven-eighths vote in each houses — a practically impossible threshold to meet. The push for AB 1340 was fueled in large part by driver complaints about reductions in their earnings in recent years. A study last year by UC Berkeley’s Labor Center found that Uber and Lyft drivers make about $7.63 per hour when their expenses — such as mileage, maintenance and depreciation of their vehicles — and time waiting for rides are factored in. That’s well below the minimum wage in the state and San Francisco. The companies have contended that drivers make far more than that, but their calculations don’t typically take into account the time drivers spend with the ride-hailing apps on waiting for rides. Drivers and their supporters blame their drop in earnings on the passage of Proposition 22 and the companies’ adoption in recent years of so-called algorithmic pricing. That practice involves the companies allegedly taking the data they’ve collected on riders and drivers to determine the highest prices the former will pay and offer the lowest fares the latter will accept, fattening the companies’ revenues and profits in the process. John Mejia said he has seen the change in earnings firsthand. When he first started driving for Uber and Lyft about 10 years ago, he said, he could make $300 to $600 driving just three to four hours per day. Now, the Alameda resident said it takes him 10 to 12 hours to reach $300 — if he’s lucky. He also said he has not been able to get the subsidy on health insurance that Prop. 22 promised the companies would pay, even though he meets the necessary requirements, because he already has such insurance. Mejia, who has worked with bill sponsor SEIU to promote the driver-unionization effort, said he was excited about AB 1340’s passage. Ex // Top Stories SF mayor touts downtown plans, $40M in private money Daniel Lurie says funds will help create safe, clean streets, support small business and activate downtown public spaces BART resumes service following hourslong outage Problems with its train-control system prevented BART from offering full serivce for much of Friday morning Classic cocktails make historic Sam’s Grill a modern staple The longtime power lunch spot is steadfast in offering classic cocktails to The City’s movers and shakersNot all drivers or advocates were on board with the legislation. Rideshare Drivers United, which purports to be the oldest driver organization in the state — and the largest, with some 20,000 members — criticized the legislation as it was making its way through the Legislature for not going far enough to protect organizing rights for drivers and boost their earnings. Last week, Gov. Newsom and legislative leaders announced they’d struck a deal with bill sponsor SEIU California and the companies to allow AB 1340 to move forward. RDU President Nicole Moore lambasted that deal, saying that while her organization had been actively working with legislators to try to improve the bill, it had been left out of the negotiations. Moore also said that the agreement represented a giveaway to Uber and Lyft. As part of the deal to move AB 1340, negotiators agreed to pass separate legislation — Senate Bill 371 — that would reduce the amount of uninsured-motorist coverage drivers are required to carry. Because that insurance is typically paid for by the ride-hail companies, lowering the coverage threshold would effectively reduce their costs without any promise that any part of the savings would be passed along to drivers, Moore said. Indeed, in response to the announcement of the deal, the ride-hail companies focused on SB 371, arguing that its passage would cut costs for riders, seeming to imply that cost savings would go to them, not drivers. The Assembly passed SB 371 Monday by a 77-0 vote. The state Senate approved it Wednesday 39-0, sending it to the governor's desk as well. In the wake of that deal, legislators made extensive changes to AB 1340, mostly clarifying its terms and laying out the necessary provisions of any agreement struck between the companies and a drivers union. But the new language also includes a provision that would require the Public Employment Relations Board, which will oversee AB 1340, to only recognize a union to represent drivers if that organization has prior experience in collective bargaining or is affiliated with a union that does. Moore saw that provision as directed at RDU, which hasn’t been able to act as a union and negotiate for drivers because they didn’t have the right to organize.SEIU officials said RDU could meet the bill’s requirements by affiliating with an established union. Such acrimony and potential shortcomings of the bill aside, drivers who spoke with The Examiner said they were thrilled at the prospect of being able to form a union. Hector Castellanos said he drives for Uber and Lyft 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and sometimes drives on Saturdays as well. With the companies taking an increasing cut of their fares, he said has to drive that much just to pay his bills. He said the pay has gotten so bad that he’s seen some drivers sleeping in their cars. One of them is now homeless, because he didn’t have enough money to pay his rent, said Castellanos, an Antioch resident who has been driving for the ride-hail companies for about 10 years. Castellanos said he sees a union as a way to fight for better wages and benefits, more transparency from the companies about how the money customers pay in fares is divvied up, and a better process for dealing with driver deactivations. Many drivers have complained that the companies frequently deactivate them — making them ineligible to drive and earn money for the companies — with little explanation or recourse. Organizing “is going to be the only way we can do something,” said Castellanos, who along with Mejia and Cabalar is part of Gig Workers Union, a group affiliated with SEIU that is pushing for AB 1340 and unionization.
Lyft Ride-Hailing Ab 1340 Sb 371 Buffy Wicks Seiu
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