Uber, Lyft Drivers Prepared to Form Union
Hundreds of thousands of independent contractors for ride-hailing companies in California could be part of a union next month, putting to bed a yearslong struggle for a place at the bargaining table to fight for better pay and benefits.
The California Gig Workers Union, which represents thousands of app-based drivers in the state, met a required 30% threshold of active drivers who are supportive of the effort, according to the state’s Public Employment Relations Board. Under a state law that went into effect this year, that support sets the stage for state regulators to certify the union within 30 days.
Drivers for ride-hailing giants like Uber and Lyft and other companies are classified as independent contractors and don’t qualify for overtime pay and other protections granted under federal law. However state lawmakers passed AB 1340 last year, giving drivers a path to form a union and bargain for protections.
CGWU said it expects the union certification to go through since, according to PERB, “no other driver organization is currently eligible to submit proof of support during [the waiting] period.”
If it does, CGWU will become the exclusive bargaining representative for Uber and Lyft drivers.
Hector Castellanos, who has been driving for Uber and Lyft for about a dozen years, said that would change the lives of thousands of families.
“It’s so incredible that we’re fighting for so long and finally we’re certified as a union,” Castellanos said. “Exciting, crying, I mean, it’s been that rollercoaster going up and down.”
Castellanos said pay and benefits are the top two things drivers will be looking to bargain about with the companies. Drivers say the share that Lyft and Uber take out of fares – that could otherwise go to them – is too much. Lyft says on its website that it caps its own fees at 30% of a fare, with varying external fees.
The fight for better driver conditions started long before AB 1340’s passage.
Rideshare drivers, with organizing help from unions like Service Employees International Union Local 1021, have clashed with Uber and Lyft over the independent contractor designation. In 2020, voters across the state approved a measure known as Proposition 22 that confirmed drivers’ classification as contractors instead of employees, leaving them without healthcare and other benefits.
Castellanos was one of the plaintiffs who appealed the measure, calling it unconstitutional. The California Supreme Court upheld the measure in 2024.
Now, the companies say they look forward to engaging with the drivers.
CJ Macklin, a spokesperson for Lyft, said it was committed to doing so in good faith and focused on keeping the service dependable for users.
Ramona Prieto, head of Uber Public Policy and Communications in the Western U.S., said the certification was the next step in what she called the “historic compromise” of AB 1340 that gave drivers a path to representation “while preserving the independence and flexibility they’ve consistently said they value most.”
The California Gig Workers Union said that if certified, it would be the largest union made up of gig drivers in the world.
KQED’s Farida Jhabvala Romero contributed to this report.