On Tuesday, we held our third negotiation session with Uber and Lyft, focusing on deactivations — a critical issue affecting our lives and families. Deactivated drivers shared their personal stories so the companies could see the human lives affected by unfair deactivations.

“Since I got deactivated, I’ve lived in limbo with no income. I had to go to church food pantries to feed myself and my three kids,” said driver Victoria Acosta.

“I bought that new car so I could provide for my family and now I’m making payments on a car I can’t drive for work. I have three kids. Everything I earn goes to supporting them. And right now, I can’t,” said driver Edward Robles Vasquez.

We are fed up, so we made these proposals to fix the broken deactivation system once and for all:

• Progressive Discipline – a driver has the right to warnings and to fix any non-egregious issues like paperwork before a deactivation can take place. The company must provide drivers with a written explanation of the discipline and time to fix the issue before any deactivation.
• Just Cause – if a driver is deactivated, the company has to provide a reason why and must prove their case with evidence. No deactivation or discipline based on an algorithm! A human must review first!
• Due Process – the union has the right to put on a real case and fight a driver’s deactivation with clear steps that both parties adhere to. Drivers have the right to have a Union representative present for all investigatory meetings that may lead to deactivation.
• A Fair Process to Challenge Deactivations – that includes filing a grievance, quick reinstatement if the deactivation was caused by administrative errors or insufficiencies, and a Labor-Management Committee to meet on a regular basis to resolve issues.

Join us on Tuesday, September 22, at 7 pm for our next ADU Bargaining Info Session on Zoom to learn more about our deactivation proposals and the contract bargaining process.

Here’s a photo of our team at the third session on Tuesday:

The companies responded to our proposals by saying they want to work with us on fixing the deactivation process. Let’s hope their counterproposals at our next bargaining session (happening on September 29) reflect that.

One thing is clear – the companies are serious about negotiating because they know that drivers are serious and engaged in the process. We have come a long way to get here and are ready to fight for our proposals. We told them we will not be leaving negotiations without a contract that gives us a fair process for deactivations. And we will not back down.