Guild Warns a State Reclassification Bill Would Leave Drivers Unable to Unionize

New York, NY — The Independent Drivers Guild, which represents and advocates for New York’s ride-hail drivers, is calling for New York State to pass legislation giving drivers the right to fully unionize with collective and sectoral bargaining rights.

The Drivers Guild, a Machinists Union affiliate, successfully organized to win the nation’s first minimum pay rate protection for New York’s app-based drivers as well as landmark benefits and a law requiring Uber to offer a tipping option in the app. The Guild’s organizing wins have put over $1 billion in drivers’ pockets. However, ride-hail companies continue to dramatically change the terms of drivers’ working conditions at any time and only collective or sectoral bargaining rights will empower drivers to finally end this exploitation.

“Our labor laws are broken and New York must act to give workers an easier path to representation. If New York passes a right to bargain law, we will be blazing a trail for growing our unionized workforce with the largest organizing gains in decades. We can empower 120,000 ride-hail drivers to get the representation they so desperately want. Only by empowering workers to forge their own agenda can we truly ensure that workers are treated fairly,” said IDG Executive Director and longtime labor organizer Brendan Sexton.  Read Sexton’s prepared testimony here:

“The Trump National Labor Relations Board ruled that Uber drivers are not employees eligible to unionize under federal law. A state law reclassifying drivers as employees would not reverse that and would leave drivers in a strange legal purgatory, unable to unionize and with legal challenges continuing to stretch on for years,” said Sexton. “Our members can’t wait years, our members are struggling right now. New York has an opportunity to give drivers the right to unionize right now and we urge you to be bold and do just that. Don’t stick drivers in a legal purgatory, give us the right to collective bargaining. Let us unionize.  We in New York State can be the game changer to allow workers to organize in a real meaningful way. This is a chance for New York to live up to its pro-union reputation.”

“New York State and the Machinists Union helped drivers gain workers’ compensation through the Black Car Fund two decades ago and we are proud to have expanded those benefits. However there are many issues that gig workers face that cannot be resolved through a fund and it’s time for New York to act again, this time giving drivers the right to unionize,” added Sexton. “We applaud the New York State AFL-CIO and their efforts to help New York State workers unionize with collective and sectoral bargaining agreements. We will work and support them in building a more robust labor movement that includes more workers, include an easier path to representation and collective bargaining.”

Union membership has dropped to a record low in the United States, with just six percent of private sector workers represented by a union. At the same time over 85 percent of workers want to belong to a Union and according to a poll done by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research among New York’s ride-hail drivers that figure is even higher with 95 percent of drivers desiring representation. This disconnect is because federal labor laws are failing workers and the Trump administration’s National Labor Relations Board is only seeking to make it harder for workers to get the representation they seek.

In May, the Trump National Labor Relations Board released its ruling that Uber drivers are independent contractors, not employees, under the National Labor Relations Act. This means ride-hail drivers cannot organize in a union under federal law. The ruling left open the possibility for states to fill in the void with these workers and create a path to organize in a real meaningful way.

Media contact: press@driversguild.org