NYTWA Stands in Solidarity with Los Angeles Uber & Lyft Drivers on Strike Today

Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (she/her), released the following statement: 

"The 21,000 Uber, Lyft, yellow taxi, green cab, black car, and livery drivers who together make up the New York Taxi Workers Alliance stand in solidarity with the Uber and Lyft drivers of Rideshare Drivers United making history today with their fearless strike.

"Here in New York, we have fought back and won a permanent stop to rate cuts with the minimum pay rule and a cap on new for-hire vehicles. But we still have a long way to go. Nine drivers in our city have now committed suicide because of crushing financial despair, including most recently Lyft driver Lu Wu. 

"We continue to fight for an end to this race to the bottom that is crushing drivers in every sector. We need one regulated metered rate of fare with most of that fare going to the drivers, along with a guaranteed minimum wage to establish an income floor -- without a ceiling. 

"A study commissioned by NYC's Taxi and Limousine Comission found that 96 percent of App drivers were earning below minimum wage. Uber's new rates in Los Angeles would be sub-poverty. Uber and Lyft continue to destroy drivers' lives, leaving them in poverty and debt, as the companies saturate streets, cut rates and syphon revenue from passenger fares into their own pockets. 

"California has some of the strongest labor laws in the country but has been politically dominated by tech finance in the past few years. These powerful interests are lobbying for deregulation of taxi laws and transportation policy along with labor laws -- their latest attack on labor is an attempt to undermine California's historic Dynamex decision. But while giglords like Uber and Lyft try to court labor and other allies to give cover to their anti-worker business model and political machinations, Rideshare Drivers United is organizing and fighting back. 

"We are proud to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of Rideshare Drivers United, an allied organization of the Taxi Workers Alliance of Los Angeles, which is part of our National Taxi Workers Alliance. When workers stand together, militant in our resolve, we can win against even the most powerful corporations."