Prospective unions face a huge challenge, potentially needing to sign up tens of thousands of drivers to get official recognition
If you’ve spoken with a longtime Uber or Lyft driver about their experiences working for the ride-hailing companies, Hector Castellanos’ story will seem familiar. The Antioch resident started driving for the companies about 11 years ago, he said.
Before Uber went public in 2019, he made good money — about $400 each 8-hour workday, before expenses, he said. These days, though, he makes about half that amount, even though he’s now working 12-hour days, he said. And that’s before the $70 or so he pays for gas after driving about 300 miles. To make ends meet, he works six days a week, he said.Such experiences are why he and other drivers are thrilled about a new state law that will allow them to form a union. Castellano said he’s excited that such an organization might “finally” allow him and other drivers to have a voice in determining their working conditions. He has already signed a union card with California Gig Workers Union, an SEIU-affiliated group that’s seeking to organize drivers, and Castellanos has been urging other drivers to do so also.“They said …, ‘We’ve been waiting for this thing a long time,’” he said. The new law, Assembly Bill 1340, which took effect at the beginning of the year, not only authorizes ride-hail drivers to form a union, but lays out a formal process for them to do so. The first steps in that process have already been taken, but important milestones are coming up within the next three months. Under the timeline laid out in the law, the Public Employment Relations Board, which is overseeing the process, could certify a union to bargain on behalf of drivers as soon as May. Union leaders won’t say whether they expect to get certification that soon. In response to an email seeking comment on the unionization efforts, Uber spokesman Zahid Arab pointed to an October corporate blog post in which Camiel Irving, the company’s head of mobility for the U.S. and Canada, praised a separate piece of legislation the state Legislature passed as part of a compromise with the ride-hailing giants to push through AB 1340. That measure, Senate Bill 371, lowered the uninsured-motorist coverage limits Uber and Lyft drivers were required to carry. In the post, Irving also noted that AB 1340 won’t overturn Proposition 22, which designated drivers as independent contractors. “Together, these new laws represent a compromise that lowers costs for riders while creating stronger voices for drivers–demonstrating how industry, labor, and lawmakers can work together to deliver real solutions,” she said.Although there’s a lot of enthusiasm among drivers, union leaders said the requirements to form a bargaining unit are challenging. To get initial recognition from PERB as a potential bargaining unit, a union would need 10% of active drivers to authorize it to represent them. To be certified as a bargaining unit, the union would need to get at least 30% of drivers to sign up. Given that there are likely hundreds of thousands of drivers in the state, that’s going to require signing up tens of thousands of them. By comparison, a large hospital that the SEIU might try to organize might have 4,000-5,000 workers, said Matt Lege, a lobbyist for the union’s statewide organization. Unlike those hospital workers, who generally work in one place, Uber and Lyft drivers have no centralized workplace, he noted. Signing up the requisite number of drivers is “a monumentous undertaking,” Lege said. “But we feel good about the progress we’ve made, and the workers have been clear about their demand to have a voice on the job.” The initial steps in the unionization process happened in January; companies submitted to PERB the number of rides their drivers completed in the state in the prior three months. Under the law, the company or companies that account for 95% of rides in the state are subject to its provisions. AB 1340 requires companies to provide ride data to PERB and the agency to publish updates every quarter. PERB found that Uber and Lyft combined provided 99.3% of all rides in the fourth quarter of 2025, with Uber accounting for 41.6 million and Lyft 26.7 million. Also in January, the law opened up a window for organizations seeking to represent workers to be recognized by PERB as being qualified to do that. So far, only the Gig Workers Union has sought and gained that designation. Another group, Rideshare Drivers United, is hoping to do so in April, during the next window of opportunity, according to its president, Nicole Moore. The new law focuses on active drivers. To determine which drivers qualify as active ones, the law requires the covered companies — in this case, Uber and Lyft — to submit to PERB by April 14 information about all individual drivers who have completed at least 20 rides in the previous six months. That information includes drivers’ names, contact information and the number of rides they’ve completed in that half-year period. By the end of April, PERB must take that data to determine the median number of rides completed by drivers in that pool. AB 1340 considers those who have completed the median number or more to be active drivers. Ex // Top Stories Move over, wealth tax: USF prof says Prop. 13 should be focus Patrick Murphy estimates that the third rail of California politics deprives the state of about $45 billion per year — but he thinks there’s a better way Mahan: Time to get back to what matters most to California families San Jose mayor and gubernatorial candidate calls for policies that make a positive difference for Californians SF private school to fully resume in-person classes after TB outbreak Archbishop Riordan currently has no active cases on campus, according to officials, and the risk to public is low At least until the agency formally recognizes a union, AB 1340 mandates that it determine every quarter the number of active drivers. To form a sanctioned union, prospective organizing groups need to garner the support of those active drivers. Until PERB comes out with its data, the number of those drivers is unclear, Moore said. But if you take the figure of 800,000 that has been bandied about — which Moore thinks is high — the number of active ones is likely in the order of 250,000 to 300,000, she said. The next key step for the unionization effort happens May 1, when the door will open for prospective unions to show that 10% of active drivers have signed up to be represented by them. PERB has 30 days to verify they’ve met that threshold. Once it does, it has another 30 days to provide to any and all organizations that have the requisite number of signatures the full list of active drivers. The organizations can use those lists to try to sign up additional drivers to their unionization efforts. But the law allows labor groups to jump ahead too. Starting May 1, if any one organization can show PERB that it has signed up 30% of active drivers, it can essentially apply to be recognized as the bargaining unit for all such drivers. At the end of 30 days, if no other organization has shown that it has signed up 30% of drivers or a group of 30% of drivers has not declared that they don’t want to be represented by a union at all, the law requires PERB to confer on the organization official union status. If either of those things happen, the agency will hold an election to determine whether unionization has majority support or which organization will represent workers. PERB is only authorized to recognize one union to represent drivers at a time. Alternatively, again anytime after May 1, a prospective union can present to PERB evidence that it has gained majority support from active drivers. In that case, once the agency confirms that support, the law requires it to immediately officially recognize the organization. Instead of that process, it’s possible drivers will have to choose between at least two organizations to represent them. Moore, whose organization represents some 20,000 current Uber and Lyft drivers, is aiming to not only have Rideshare Drivers be recognized in April as qualified to represent workers but to meet the 10% threshold the following month. For now, though, both she and SEIU’s Lege said they aren’t worried about the other’s efforts to sign up workers.“Our fight,” Moore said, “is with Uber and Lyft, not with any other unions.” Still, she thinks Rideshare Drivers will have a leg up on organizing drivers, because it has and always has been a driver-led organization, she said.“People been running their own business. They can run their own union,” she said. Regardless of which wins out, Daryush Khodadadi-Mobarakeh, like Castellanos, is excited about the prospect of having a union to represent him and other drivers. He began driving for Uber and Lyft in 2014, he said. When he saw his cut of fares dropping to critical levels around 2018, he started working for the delivery apps as well, such as DoorDash and Uber Eats. By 2020, he was only driving part time, picking up a job as a security officer to bring in extra cash, he said. “It’s to the point that you have to work much more than what used to work a few years back to make ends meet,” said Khodadadi-Mobarakeh, a 61-year-old Campbell resident. He got involved in the union organizing efforts and driver protests in 2018, he said. He has been involved with both Rideshare Drivers and the Gig Workers Union, although he signed a union card with the latter, he said. Khodadadi-Mobarakeh has been out talking with drivers about signing up for the union. One challenge he’s run into is that many don’t speak English, he said. But a majority of the ones he has been able to communicate with support the union effort, he said. Reaching out and getting such drivers on board is “the first step in the right direction to get our voices heard,” he said. “Hopefully, we can negotiate a good contract with Uber and Lyft.” If you have a tip about tech, startups or the venture industry, contact Troy Wolverton at twolverton@sfexaminer.com or via text or Signal at 515-5594.
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