California’s Lyft and Uber drivers union is official. What changes do drivers want?

• California’s labor relations board officially recognized the Gig Workers Union, which will represent Lyft and Uber drivers.
• The union plans to ask drivers across the state about their top priorities for their first contract.
• For local drivers who spoke with Abridged by PBS KVIE, wages are the top concern.

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Most days, Lee Martinez gets up before dawn to tidy the backseat and wipe down the windows of his gray Toyota Corolla.

“Time is money,” he said. “I think I could speak for anyone when it comes to Lyft. Time is money.”

Before pulling onto Sacramento’s streets, the Lyft driver takes a moment to find the perfect soundtrack. Then, “it’s just me and the road,” he said.

As he picks up riders, Martinez begins to curate the playlist — introducing some R&B or EDM, Frank Sinatra or Sade. “Kind of working the crowd,” he said.

As anyone who’s taken an Uber or Lyft knows, every driver has a different style. Yet they share a set of tough working conditions, from safety risks to falling pay rates.

Now, all are members of the state’s first rideshare drivers’ collective, after the state labor relations board certified the California Gig Workers’ Union this month.

The union arose from one of the biggest battles between corporations and labor that California has seen in recent history. Seven years ago, California passed a law by then-Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, that enshrined the legal assumption that workers are employees rather than independent contractors unless companies could meet certain legal tests.

But Uber and Lyft won a huge carveout that excluded rideshare drivers from the law when voters passed Proposition 22, which rideshare companies spent over $200 million to promote.

Last year, Assemblymembers Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, and Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, introduced a bill specifically allowing rideshare drivers to unionize.

As unions fought a separate bill Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento, introduced to slash the liability insurance that rideshare companies had to provide underinsured drivers, all three lawmakers forged a deal with the companies to pass both bills with some changes, Politico reported.

After gauging support from drivers across California, the Public Employment Relations Board officially recognized the union Sept. 9.

“Hundreds of thousands of gig drivers have something they’ve been denied for far too long: power at the bargaining table,” Berman said in a Service Employees International Union news release.

Surveying the workforce

Now, drivers who’ve led the organizing plan to survey their colleagues across the state about working conditions and priorities, said Gurpreet Pannu, a Lyft driver based in Roseville who had an active role in unionizing. Then, “we start the bargaining process to get our first contract,” he said.

Martinez said his biggest worry is how drivers’ cut of the earnings from each ride has shrunk over the years.

He started driving for Lyft about nine years ago, when he found himself back in Sacramento after graduating from San Jose State.

“As I matured, I fell in love with Sacramento again. And I’m like, I need to find a job here, because I’m going to stick around here for a little bit,” he said.

Driving in addition to his day job helped him buy a home and travel the world.

But driving hasn’t been as lucrative lately, he said. In years past, Martinez might make $80 driving from Sacramento to Berkeley; now, he might take home $40, he said. A Sacramento International Airport trip might cost local riders $30 or $40, but the driver might keep $15, he said.

Waiting in the heat in the airport’s rideshare pickup lane Wednesday afternoon, Uber driver Gerald Rivera had the same concern.

“Sometimes (customers) tell (me), ‘I pay this much,'” he said. “… What’s coming to me is way less.”

Problems to address

Another topic Martinez hopes the union will tackle is Lyft’s help line for drivers.

While he’s never been in immediate danger, Martinez said, he has watched risky situations play out in his rearview mirror from customers dropping drug paraphernalia to a drunk couple leaving a large knife in the backseat.

There should be a real person rather than an automated voice on the help line when drivers call, Martinez said.

“It’s really scary when you’re on the road and you’re in the middle of nowhere, and you call and it’s like, ‘Hi, thank you for calling, please wait,'” he said.

Another problem Martinez hopes the union will take up is the increased fees Lyft charges drivers to withdraw from company-issued bank cards. Pannu pointed to Lyft’s deactivation of drivers’ accounts without enough due process as another issue.

To the rescue

However, Martinez was clear that he feels his overall experience driving for Lyft has been positive.

Sometimes, it’s even allowed him to come to someone else’s rescue, he said.

“You want to get out of a situation, and I’m there. It’s easy to be there for somebody,” he said. “You just feel heroic in a way.”

Other times, during the brief intersection between his and his passengers’ lives, Martinez acts as a grounding presence, he said.

Especially in the early hours, he said, “you come across people who are like, should I have kissed him? Should I have kissed her? Should I kiss them? … Then I become this voice of reason: ‘You know what? Call them when you sober up.’ Or, ‘Let’s take you back.'”

That human element could disappear as Waymo works to launch driverless cabs in Sacramento, Martinez said. The state granted Waymo permission to operate here last month.

The driver has seen what a city saturated with Waymos looks like while visiting Phoenix.

“I jumped into one a couple times … it was scary, because you’re expecting someone to be there in the front seat, and they’re not,” Martinez said.

“There’s that weird subconscious thing where it’s like, someone should be there. Someone should take me home.”