NEW YORK – Uber drivers in New York City launched their second 24-hour strike in less than a month on Thursday to protest their company’s efforts to block a pay raise approved by the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, (NYTWA), the union that represents the approximately 21,000 drivers dispatched by the app, along with those behind the wheel of green, black and liveried cars in the city, has asked riders to help its bid to get the increases reinstated for the boycott of Uber until midnight. The group says app drivers, including those who work for Uber, lost about $12 million in raises by the first of the year due to the judge’s temporary restraining order.
The hikes were supposed to go into effect Dec. 19, the day Uber’s last 24-hour strike took place. That strike halted traffic across the Brooklyn Bridge during rush hour as dozens of Uber drivers formed a caravan, sacrificing rush hour work to make a stand. Four days later, on December 23, the NYTWA filed a brief by court friend in the state court case.
The union has asked the judge to evaluate the interest of the drivers in reinstating the increase. The court is reviewing the documents ahead of Friday’s hearing on the matter, the NYTWA said. He scheduled a noon Thursday rally in front of Uber’s New York headquarters Via Greenwich in Manhattan. Proponents say inflation underscores the drastic need for cash, which is why the NYTWA says TLC voted to pass it in the first place.
The TLC voted for the hike to help drivers defray the costs of record inflation. For drivers and the rest of America, bread and milk are the most expensive in 40 years, says the NYTWA, and car expenses have soared even more. In the New York City region, vehicle costs are 250 percent higher than household costs, according to the union. Gasoline doubled last summer compared to 2018, the year TLC first set rates for Uber and Lyft drivers.
At the same time, Uber said it charged UberX users 48% more in September 2022 than in 2019, the union noted.
About 80,000 Uber drivers were expected to get the pre-Christmas pay raise; they would earn 7.4% more per minute and a 24% increase per mile.
“I am shocked and speechless thinking about how Uber stopped our raise after all the hearings and protests we had. This raise was like a little light of happiness for our families and for us, which Uber didn’t allow for that to happen,” Uber driver and NYTWA member Nusrat Jahan said in a statement ahead of Thursday’s strike. “I am ashamed that Uber blocked this happiness before the holidays. Now I work for Uber by raising all this money so that they can charter a private jet or go to a private island or go to Dubai to celebrate their happiness with their friends and familiar.”
“We could have made an extra $1,000 a month to pay bills, not luxuries,” Jahan added. “Let’s all come together on January 5 to show Uber what we can do.”
In the ride-sharing company’s lawsuit, Uber argued that the authorized pay hike would cost the company nearly $21 million a month. A spokesperson said the company wants fees to be consistent and transparent.
“Drivers do essential work and deserve to be paid fairly, but rates must be calculated transparently, consistently and predictably. The current FTA rules continue to provide for an annual review linked to the rate of inflation; that’s one reason why driver pay has increased 38.4 percent since 2019,” Uber spokesman Josh Gold said in December.
