Unionized Rideshare Drivers Vow Future Strikes After Jamming Nashville Airport

Summer is winding down, but the Tennessee Drivers Union is just getting started. Following a vote to unionize in late August, a coalition of rideshare drivers kicked off Labor Day weekend by staging a strike at the Nashville International Airport. Around 100 Uber and Lyft drivers filled up the airport rideshare lot but refused to accept rides, aiming to deal a blow to Nashville’s $30 billion tourism industry on a holiday weekend. The Tennessee Drivers Union, which represents drivers from more than 14 countries, says it’s the largest strike of its kind to occur in the Deep South and has vowed to continue staging periodic strikes until its demands are met.

This latest effort in Tennessee highlights the ongoing struggles of rideshare drivers and other gig workers, who have spent years fighting for fair pay amid intense corporate pushback. The Tennessee Drivers Union says Uber and Lyft take between 60 percent and 80 percent of rideshare drivers’ earnings, forcing many to work 12-hour days to make ends meet, even as Uber shares hit record highs this year. Similarly, a 2023 report from the UCLA Labor Center found that while passenger costs have been increasing, Uber and Lyft are taking a larger percentage of driver earnings than before. The Tennessee drivers’ Labor Day action tactically mirrors the nationwide strikes that occurred this past February, when Lyft, Uber and DoorDash drivers mounted strikes in 44 cities, including 10 major airports, to push for higher wages and better protections. Meanwhile, as the presidential race enters its final months, labor advocates are wondering whether Kamala Harris would support the expansion of labor protections for rideshare drivers if she is elected as president.

In January, President Joe Biden’s administration enacted a major new rule aimed at bolstering legal protections for the millions of workers classified as independent contractors. According to a 2021 Pew Research Center report, roughly one in six Americans have earned money from a gig work platform, and, unlike full-time employees, these workers are not guaranteed minimum wages, health coverage or paid sick days under state and federal laws. The decision by the Department of Labor, which went into effect on March 11, reversed a Donald Trump-era rule that made it easier for companies to classify their workers as independent contractors and deny them such benefits.

These shifting federal rules underscore the precarious state of rideshare drivers, who are often at the whims of corporations in the under-regulated gig economy. Even as Biden has praised himself as the most pro-labor president in history, the Department of Labor rule has failed to compel companies like Uber and Lyft to reclassify their contractors as employees. In fact, after corporations in at least five different states sued to block the Department of Labor rule, the Biden administration put forward arguments in legal filings that emphasize the inefficacy of its own rule. The Department of Labor “has asked the court to dismiss the cases or rule quickly in their favor, arguing that the measure hasn’t resulted in — and won’t lead to — widespread reclassification of independent contractors to employees entitled to federal wage-and-hour rights,” Bloomberg Law reported in August. If the rule doesn’t improve protections for independent contractors, then one must ask: What is the point?

At the state level, rideshare drivers have also faced a shifting suite of patchwork legislation. At least 10 states have considered programs that would provide gig workers with certain benefits, and on April 1, new rules went into effect in New York City that guarantee a minimum wage for app-based food delivery workers. Last year, Uber and Lyft agreed to pay out a remarkable $328 million settlement to drivers, in a wage theft case brought by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

But that hasn’t alleviated the full scope of rideshare drivers’ problems. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance — a union representing taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers in the city — recently threatened to strike, citing a deal brokered between New York City officials and Uber and Lyft that the union says will harm drivers. After California passed a law in 2019 that made gig workers eligible for various employee benefits, companies including Uber and Lyft launched a massive lobbying blitz, spending upward of $200 million to push for a ballot measure that would ensure their drivers would remain classified as independent contractors. Proposition 22 passed in November 2020 and marked the most expensive ballot measure campaign in California history. The California Supreme Court upheld the proposition in a ruling this past July.

That rideshare driver workers have struggled to achieve sustained wins even in blue states and cities underscores their vulnerable position. In the South, workers across industries have faced huge barriers to labor organizing, making the Tennessee Drivers Union’s efforts all the more crucial. Tennessee is one of 28 states with right-to-work laws, which generally make it harder for workers to unionize. Still, the Tennessee Drivers Union is at the forefront of a growing Deep South labor movement: Tennessee is the fastest growing state for labor unions, even as union membership hovers at around 30 percent lower than the national average.

The Biden-Harris administration has already indicated its interest in pursuing enhanced protections for rideshare workers with the implementation of the Department of Labor rule. But as that rule now faces numerous legal challenges, it is unclear whether Harris would seek to continue the push for expanded gig workers’ rights if she is elected president. Harris’s brother-in-law, Tony West, is the chief legal officer at Uber and one of Harris’s closest advisers. Lest we forget, Uber is one of the businesses currently suing the Department of Labor over its gig worker rule, and despite Uber’s well-documented anti-worker efforts, West spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month. West has also come under fire for his role in President Barack Obama’s administration: In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, West’s office reached settlements with big banks that critics said were inadequate. And, as The American Prospect has reported, West’s office was the co-chair of a task force that was supposed to investigate the financial industry’s misconduct — and never did.

Still, Harris is not beholden to her brother-in-law; she can chart her own course. After all, it’s clear that the issue of rideshare drivers’ rights is not going away any time soon — and neither will the organizing.