Presidential candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders said Wednesday he supports a nationwide driver strike against rideshare companies Uber and Lyft.
“Uber is not a poor company. It paid its top five executives $143 million in compensation last year, including $45 million to its CEO. So why are Uber drivers struggling to put food on the table? I stand with striking Uber and Lyft drivers today. The greed has got to end,” Mr. Sanders tweeted.
Along with the tweet, the Vermont independent posted a video interviewing Uber drivers about their discontent with the company’s pay structure.
“Earnings have gone down so much that people can’t afford health care. … There’s not enough money for basic things that people need. Most people are working 50, sometimes 60 hours a week, to be able to make the money that they were making three years ago, and that means that people are driving while they’re exhausted,” one driver said.
Drivers in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and San Francisco are going on strike prior to Uber’s planned initial public offering (IPO.)
They are also asking for more transparency in wages, fare breakdowns and union recognition.
“While the $100bn IPO will make millionaires of many Uber investors and executives, Uber has cut the pay of drivers often leaving them earning less than minimum wage after expenses. Uber also denies drivers basic worker benefits such as vacation time, healthcare and retirement contributions,” Gig Workers Rising, a group advocating for contract workers who are employed by tech companies, said in a statement to The Hill this month.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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