Uber drivers around the world took the streets on Wednesday to protest their wages. From Sydney to London to New York to San Francisco, drivers…
Uber drivers around the world took the streets on Wednesday to protest their wages. From Sydney to London to New York to San Francisco, drivers say they’re working increasingly long hours for increasingly less pay and it’s becoming impossible to earn a living. Along with protests, drivers in several cities are shutting down their apps for 12 hours as a form of strike against the ride-hailing company.
The strike and protests come two days before Uber is expected to debut on the stock market with an initial public offering that is expected to raise around $9 billion and would value Uber at about $91.5 billion. That means hundreds of Uber employees will likely become overnight millionaires and the disparity of wealth between company employees and drivers will get even wider.
« When I started it was part time, but now everyone is full time just to pay our bills, » said San Francisco driver Mostafa Makled and one of the organizers of the Bay Area protest. « Every year they change their policies regarding their rates. »
Uber has changed drivers rates over the past couple of years, according to Harry Campbell, a Los Angeles driver who runs a popular blog called The Rideshare Guy. The company often makes these changes without a lot of warning or explanation to drivers.
