Uber and Lyft will allow 800,000 California rideshare drivers to unionize and obtain collective bargaining rights, although drivers can refuse to join the union. SEIU California reports one out of every 24 California workers is at least sometimes a gig driver. Uber and Lyft previously resisted minimum wage guarantees and job benefits and fought the 2019 AB5 bill, later benefiting from Prop 22 in 2020 which exempted them from employee benefit requirements. The unionization move stems from AB1340, which the companies initially opposed but accepted after concessions negotiated by Governor Gavin Newsom. Food delivery drivers are excluded and insurance requirements were lowered.
In a surprising deal that was somewhat brokered by Gavin Newsom, Uber and Lyft are going to let their 800,000 California rideshare drivers unionize and get collective bargaining rights, though drivers can still refuse to join the union. According to the union group SEIU California, there are now 800,000 rideshare drivers in the state, and that's one out every 24 California workers who are at least sometimes gig drivers. And Uber and Lyft have traditionally been notoriously resistant to giving them minimum wage guarantees or any form of job benefits.
You may recall the 2019 political battles over the gig worker benefits bill AB5, which Lyft and Uber fought against tooth and nail. And they effectively got AB5 overturned, for their companies, at least, with that Prop 22 measure in 2020 that let the rideshare companies classify their drivers as independent contractors who are exempt from any requirements for employee benefits.
While the idea comes from a state Assembly bill called AB1340 that Uber and Lyft both initially opposed, Governor Gavin Newsom managed to negotiate some concessions to get the two companies on board. This is a historic agreement between workers and business that only California could deliver, Newsom said in a Friday morning statement. Labor and industry sat down together, worked through their differences, and found common ground that will empower hundreds of thousands of drivers while making rideshare more affordable for millions of Californians. But notably, food delivery drivers for apps like Doordash and Instacart are not included in the new arrangement. And it appears one of Newsom's concessions he offered Lyft and Uber was to lower the insurance requirements that rideshare drivers have to carry.
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