Uber drivers organise protests and ask users to log off the app

Uber Eats drivers
protesting a change in fee structure in September
2018.
Shona Ghosh/Business
Insider

• Around 1,000 Uber drivers in the UK are expected to go
  on strike in protest at their pay and employment conditions on
  Tuesday.
• Drivers across London, Birmingham, and Nottingham will
  take part in their first multi-city strike against the
  cab-hailing company.
• Users are being asked not to use the app for 24 hours
  to respect the “digital picket line.”
• The strike has won political support from the Labour
  party’s senior leadership, who are supporting calls to boycott
  the app.
• Uber says its London drivers earn significantly higher
  than the national living wage, and that it is always open to
  talking about improving their earnings.

Uber drivers will strike across three British cities from 1 p.m.
on Tuesday afternoon to demand better treatment and an upgrade in
employment status.

Drivers across Birmingham, London, and Nottingham will take part
in the first UK multi-city strike to hit the cab-hailing company.

The action has been organised by a branch of the Independent
Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), a small but outspoken
independent union that advocates for gig economy workers. The
action is led by James Farrar, a former Uber driver
who won a legal battle against the firm in 2016 over drivers’
employment status.

Farrar, now chair of the United Private Hire Drivers branch of
IWGB, told Business Insider he expected around 1,000 drivers to
participate in the strike by logging off the app or by turning up
to protest outside Uber’s offices in each city. Uber has around
50,000 drivers in the UK.

Drivers want passengers to
log off the Uber app for a day.
Carl
Court/Getty Images

The drivers want an increase in fares to £2 per mile, where it is
currently £1.25 in London; a reduction in the commission charged
by Uber from 25% to 10%; and fewer “unfair” deactivations.
Deactivations involve an Uber driver being barred from the
platform permanently or temporarily for poor service or bad
conduct.

According to Farrar, there have been more driver deactivations
since Uber won its licence back to operate in London, partly
because the company now has to meet strict driver standards.
“It’s a real dragnet. Any complaint and you’re gone,” he said.

“Our actions are impactful and have forced Uber to respond in all
sorts of ways,” he added. “The trouble is that it is absolutely
avoiding its responsibility to workers. The sad truth about the
business model, for all the tech that Uber is selling, is that
it’s built on labour exploitation. That’s the truth. Uber has to
eventually confront that.”

Uber has argued that other minicab operators also employ drivers
on a contractor basis, rather than as employees with benefits and
a minimum wage. It has also said drivers value flexibility. The
company is appealing the 2016 ruling which determines it must
give its drivers’ worker rights.

An Uber spokeswoman told Business Insider: “We are always looking
to make improvements to ensure drivers have the best possible
experience and can make the most of their time driving on the
app.

“That’s why over the last few months we’ve introduced dozens of
new features, including sickness, injury, maternity and paternity
protections. An academic study last month found that drivers in
London make an average of £11 an hour, after accounting for all
of their costs and Uber’s service fee. We continue to look at
ways to help drivers increase their earnings and our door is
always open if anyone wants to speak to us about any issues
they’re having.”

That £11 an hour figure cited by Google is higher than the London
living wage of £10.20 an hour.

Uber’s drivers are better organised and winning political support

Uber
Eats drivers gather outside Uber’s Aldgate headquarters in east
London, in September 2018.
Shona
Ghosh/Business Insider

The strike is a sign that Uber drivers are becoming more
organised — and winning political support.

Farrar said it had conventionally been tough to organise
large-scale action because there’s no one place where Uber
drivers meet. They log onto the app and pick up fares, then log
off and go home. They don’t gather at an office or dedicated
pickup ranks to speak with other drivers.

But this is at least the third protest or strike to hit Uber in
recent weeks. Hundreds of Uber Eats drivers, who work for Uber’s
food delivery arm, stopped traffic in east London in September to
protest outside the firm’s UK headquarters in Aldgate. They
complained about a change in fee structure, which they said meant
they would earn less for delivering food.

A follow-up protest in October saw drivers occupy the lobby of
Uber’s Aldgate headquarters. Both protests garnered national
attention.

This time, the coordinated strike has won political backing from
senior figures in the Labour party, namely shadow chancellor John
McDonnell and deputy leader Tom Watson. “I support this strike
for better employment rights and urge others to respect the app
picket line,” McDonnell wrote on Twitter.

Watson said: “Today’s 24-hour strike by Uber drivers is a hugely
significant fight for workers’ rights across the whole gig
economy. I would urge Uber customers to lend their support from
1pm today by not using the digital app.”

Farrar, however, is sceptical about the usefulness of political
intervention. He criticised the Taylor Review, a
government-backed review of the gig economy, and said London
Mayor Sadiq Khan hadn’t done enough to support drivers.

“We won [the tribunal against Uber] two years ago, and we’re no
further on, and things are getting worse,” he said. “The mayor
hasn’t helped us, the Taylor Review hasn’t helped us, the
Department for Transport hasn’t helped us. We’re reliant on the
courts, which take years.”