Uber announced an agreement on Tuesday with a prominent union to create an association for drivers in New York that would establish a forum for regular dialogue and afford them some limited benefits and protections - but that would stop short of unionisation.
The association, which will be known as the Independent Drivers Guild and will be affiliated with a regional branch of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, is the first of its kind that Uber has officially blessed, although Uber drivers have formed a number of unsanctioned organisations in cities across the country.
"We're happy to announce that we've successfully come to agreement with Uber to represent the 35,000 drivers using Uber in New York City to enhance their earning ability and benefits," said James Conigliaro Jr, founder of the guild and assistant director and general counsel at the International Association of Machinists District 15, which represents workers in the Northeast. The agreement is Uber's latest attempt to assuage mounting concerns from regulators and drivers groups about the ride-hailing company's labour model, which treats drivers as independent contractors. That model helps Uber keep its labour costs low, but it excludes drivers from being covered by most labour and employment laws, such as those that require a minimum wage and overtime.
That has spurred public disagreements, with many drivers organising in unofficial groups to gain more rights. The prospect of unionisation has loomed at times; lawmakers in Seattle voted last year to approve a bill allowing drivers for Uber and other ride-hailing apps to form unions.
In response, Uber, which is based in San Francisco, has been striking deals to tamp down the problems - with the proviso that the company be able to continue classifying its drivers as contractors and stop short of allowing drivers to unionise.
Last month, for example, Uber reached a settlement in a prominent class-action lawsuit with drivers who had contested their contractor status. Under the settlement, the company agreed to pay as much as $100 million and put less pressure on drivers to accept all rides; drivers will, however, continue as freelancers.
Uber faces other labour-related hurdles. Along with Lyft, a competing ride-hailing service, the company this week pulled operations from Austin, Tex., after losing a battle with the City Council over the nature of its background checks for drivers.
Under the terms of the deal in New York, which will be in effect for five years, a group of drivers who are guild members will hold monthly meetings with Uber management in the city, where they can raise issues of concern.
The drivers will be able to appeal decisions by Uber to bar them from its platform, and can have guild officials represent them in their appeals. In addition, they will gain access to discounted legal services, discounted life and disability insurance and discounted roadside help for problems they encounter while driving.
Yet unlike a traditional union, which contractors typically cannot form, guild members will not be able to bargain over a contract with the company that would stipulate fares, benefits and protections. Uber will continue to determine most of these elements unilaterally, albeit with more input from drivers
The machinists union has also indicated that for the duration of the five-year agreement, it will refrain from trying to unionise drivers, from encouraging them to strike and from waging legal campaigns to have them recognised by the National Labour Relations Board as employees rather than independent contractors.
"It's important to have immediate assistance in the industry and this is the structure that provides that," said Conigliaro.
He emphasised, however, that drivers do not waive any labour rights by joining the guild, and that if Uber drivers were found to be employees at any point during the agreement, the union could try to unionise the drivers at the their request.
Uber said the agreement helps smooth relationships with drivers, whose frustrations have grown with recent fare cuts and policy changes, like pressing drivers of expensive black cars to pick up riders who request a car via its low-cost Uber X service.
"Communication is important," said David Plouffe, Uber's chief adviser. "On price cuts, we haven't always had the best forum to discuss and share data - how price cuts work, what we see afterward."
Plouffe said that as a result of discussions with drivers in certain parts of the country, Uber had put in place a number of changes, like a pilot program to charge riders when a driver has to wait for more than two minutes.
With the agreement, Uber also wins a crucial ally in its effort to change the New York State law that levies a nearly nine percent tax on black car rides but that does not apply to taxis. (There is a 50 cent surcharge on yellow taxi trips.) Uber says the law unfairly singles out parts of its service. Under the terms of the deal, the machinists union will help Uber lobby the State Legislature to treat all hired vehicles equally.
Plouffe said the money likely to be saved from changing the law would flow to drivers' bottom lines, and some of it would be used to help set up a benefits fund that the guild would administer and whose scope it would determine. Among the potential new benefits is paid time off for drivers.
Uber was not seeking to replicate the guild idea outside New York, which differs from other cities in that a much higher fraction of Uber drivers use the platform full time or close to full time, Plouffe added.
The agreement drew a mixed reaction from drivers and labour activists. Eric Grant, a veteran Uber driver who recently served on a panel in Seattle that heard appeals from fellow drivers who had been deactivated - part of a special pilot programme in that city - said Uber's new appeals programme is a much-needed change.
One of the issues they have had in the past is that they deactivate people willy-nilly, without any appeals process," Grant said. "It was possible there was somebody at Uber's corporate office making a decision that really didn't understand the situation from the driver's perspective." (Uber says the decisions have frequently been made at its local operations offices.)
Others, particularly those involved in competing attempts to organise Uber drivers in New York, were sceptical. Abdoul Diallo, who helped found an association of drivers in New York, which is called the Uber Drivers Network and claims about 5,000 members, said the new organisation "sounds bogus" and that the guild was no substitute for an actual union.
Mr. Diallo said deactivation was relatively far down the list of concerns for most drivers in his organisation, while fares and Uber's cut of each trip are at the top. "First and foremost, price cuts and commissions matter most to drivers," he said.
The machinists union said no topic was off the table in the guild's discussions with Uber, including fares and commissions.
Mr. Diallo's group, meanwhile, is encouraging drivers to sign cards that will allow the Amalgamated Transit Union to represent them; more than 5,000 drivers have signed.
©2016 The New York Times News Service
