As the technological industry increasingly goes to coordination with the extreme right, the issue of the authorities has never been more important. Chicago’s company offers some key lessons.
CHicago– Month, driver coalition, grassroots organizations and trade unions announced an agreement with Uber stating that the company will support the law of Illinois, which allows drivers to unite and then trade the pay and work in the Rideshare industry. This agreement was the result of the Organization of drivers in Chicago for more than six years – a story that shows both the potential and the problems of the organization of workers in the technological field, as this industry is sharply turning to the extreme right.
When Uber and Lyft were founded, drivers and passengers were excited about technology and promises of low passengers, as well as decent fees and flexible work schedules for drivers. For some time, these advantages have obscured the industry business, which relied on the labor of independent contractors who do not have the protection of workers and the culture of the company that gave rise to the growth of any cost. Over the last decade, it became clear that this early period of the honeymoon was only temporary and was subsidized by venture capital Pruning competition and market corner. Starting in 2017, both companies Gradually declining payment For drivers who passed from the dollar infection in miles in 2015 to $ .64 per mile in 2022 – even if the value of ownership for transportation increased by 83 percent From the beginning of 2018 to the third quarter of 2022. Although at one point Lyft had a reputation As a more friendly, more socially responsible company, drivers invariably experienced a wide resemblance in terms of remuneration and work between two companies. Today, no company gives any standard time or a distance driver in Chicago, and the cost of each ride, as well as how much the total number of tariffs received by the driver is determined by an unpredictable way of mysterious algorithm. It became clear that these applications of the company are counting on the operation of workers and pay workers below the minimum wage to be profitable.
Drivers in Chicago began to organize in 2017, after the Uber announcement that employees will no longer receive the bulk of their “overstretches” (paid passengers when the platforms are occupied). Already then writing was on the wall like Uber described clearly As a “technology” company, not a transport company-and both companies constantly tried to get rid of the workforce they are harshly counting as long as they hope to replace drivers with self-cars. The organization of drivers began through an informal self -organized group, and then, since 2019, became a project of the People’s Vesto, called Chicago Gig Alliance. Drivers lobbed at the City Hall and conducted actions, protests, Acts of civil disobedienceand a vigil for workers killed at work. We shared painful stories about attacks on work. Arbitrary firing by algorithmand Tariffs for payment that left drivers in poverty And even sometimes homeless.
In 2022, Chicago Gig Alliance worked with allies at the Chicago City Council to compose and submit A Recovery Decree and improve working conditions. Drivers held meetings with their members of the Council to ask them to support this decree and held rallies and direct actions to draw attention to the dramatically worse wages and conditions in this area – the company that earned tens of media outbreaks that reached millions of Chikags.
The People’s Lobby included the support of this resolution as a condition for the process of approval of the 2023 organization, which headed the then candidate for Brendon Johnson and a dozen members of the city council to support the life factory before drivers and members of the lobbying people scored thousands of doctors. In response to a permanent organization of drivers, as well as a progressive impetus coming from the 2023 elections, Older Mike Rodriguez re -presented the ruling at the first meeting of the new Council in May 2023. Over the next 18 months, drivers and Aldeman Rodriguez built a list of Cosponsar up to 29 alder.
During this process, Chicago drivers were in constant communication with drivers in other cities that fought similar companies. The PowerSwitch Action Center and the economy are assembled together Organization of drivers from a number of states Learn on successes and failures and provide research and legal support. Drivers from places such as California, Colorado and Seattle soon went to Chicago to participate in a rally on our residence salaries, and drivers from Chicago went to Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco to ensure the requirements of fair pay.
Current Issue
While the drivers initially focused on the need for a city resolution on payment regulation, we also acknowledged that the union organization could enable employees to negotiate directly with the companies, as well as using the workers’ power to push the rules such as the decree for which we fought. To this end, we worked to establish relations with the trade unions that can be interested in supporting the ruling – and potentially organize a driver’s union for a long time. At the beginning of 2025 Chicago Gig Alliance Gathered with the International Service Staff (SEIU) and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) to push the ruling through the finish line and then work together to arrange State union of drivers rideshare.
In March 2025, the competing union joined the fight Available housing and Environmental measures For years) announced “Working Peace“Agreement with Uber and instantly began to humiliate the salary ruling as unnecessary. Iuoe is one of the largest participants in the city council in the city and had a sufficiently close relationship with the key council members who brought the decree that they were able to convince them to translate them into the move. threatened To postpone 10,000 drivers and raise prices by 50 percent if a resolution was adopted.
When we moved to the summer period of movement, before the council moved its attention to the strengthening of the budget crisis in the fall, the drivers and Oldman Rodriguez worked fiercely to pull up the votes we need. After dozens of drivers, religious leaders and other allies gathered a four-hour hearing of the City Council and several key members of the Council, who had previously sought to support this decree, continued to hesitate, realized that there were real questions about obtaining an account through a finish line. At the same time, the escalatory company Chicago Gig Alliance, Seiu and Iam represented a sufficiently reliable threat What Uber is worried that we will be able to make a ruling, or at least we will be able to continue to harm our interests in our city and the state. In response, the company came to the negotiating table and agreed with a transaction that provides the path to public rights for negotiations for more than 100,000 travel drivers across our country, but also demanded to abandon the city ruling.
It was a bitter moment for the drivers – which organized for years, working less than the minimum wage, and who needed to increase urgently. Since the independent contractor is legally forbidden to participate in traditional collective talks, state legislation is required to ensure the unification and negotiation of Rideshare drivers around wages and working conditions. This process can take one or two years to force workers to increase, which have long been. At the same time, this process offers the potential for greater power and transformation of the industry.
The question of workers’ power in the technological field is especially important when the technological industry is moving increasingly aligned with the far right. Rideshare drivers are on the forefront, bringing the technology industry to the prioritizing the needs of workers, communities and democracy, and not to maximize profits and to nourish the growth of white nationalist authoritarianism. While this milestone company in Illinois Rideshare is a bitter, it is a reminder that the organization of workers can potentially transform industries that are more important for the present moment in our economy and politics.
