Sangar Kahn sits on the edge of his trunk in a rideshare staging lot at San Francisco International Airport. He drives for Uber and Lyft and waits here, like hundreds of other drivers, to get a ride through the airport’s virtual queue for gig-drivers.
Khan lives in Modesto, but said he drives for Uber and Lyft multiple days a week in the Bay Area where he said he can make more money.
“I live three nights in my car in San Francisco and [I’m] online like daily, 18 hour or 19 hours,” Khan said.
When he works in the Bay Area, he leaves his wife and three young children at home over two hours away.
“So every day they missing me. Yeah, it's hard for me and for them,” Khan added.
As a full-time rideshare driver, Khan said he’s interested in joining a union next year to better his working conditions. He and around 800,000 other rideshare drivers in California will formally have the right to unionize starting Jan. 1 under Assembly Bill 1340, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law this fall.
But the process of forming a union could take a long time and will require support among drivers on the ground. Per the new law, the earliest drivers could vote to unionize is May 1, but it’s possible the process extends beyond that.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) sponsored the legislation and the union’s representatives have already begun reaching out to drivers at airports and on social media to build interest.
“So there is that process that is going to take some time,” said Matt Lege, a lobbyist for SEIU. “But we've seen great momentum on this and workers really expressing a desire to join the union and so we're going to capitalize on that and continue to make sure that workers' voices are heard.”
Khan said he’s already signed up.
“I think the union is good for driver and maybe they pay more,” Khan said.
Labor advocates in California have long fought to expand union rights to workers in the state’s gig-economy. That includes Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, who authored Assembly Bill 5 as an Assemblymember in 2019 to reclassify gig-workers as employees rather than independent contractors. Gig-driver companies succeeded in getting an exemption from that law after voters passed Proposition 22 in 2020, classifying app-based drivers as independent contractors. Companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash spent more than $200 million to support the measure.
“When workers are misclassified as independent contractors, and that's what was happening for decades in California, they lose out on basic labor protections,” Gonzalez said.
She added that collective bargaining rights for rideshare drivers will give them a stronger voice with their employers.
Uber and Lyft initially opposed legislation expanding union rights to their drivers. But they changed course after striking a deal with labor and lawmakers in August, in which lawmakers agreed to pass another bill aimed at reducing the companies’ insurance costs.
Senate Bill 371, which Newsom also signed into law, drastically cuts the amount of insurance companies like Uber and Lyft are required to carry for underinsured drivers. The new law reduces their insurance requirements from $1 million to $300,000 per incident.
Uber and Lyft did not agree to an interview about their drivers’ newly gained collective bargaining rights. But in a written statement, a spokesperson for Uber explained the company’s support of legislation expanding union rights was based on the legislature’s agreement to also reduce its insurance burden.
“SB 371, which we supported to improve affordability for California riders, was tied to AB 1340 as part of a compromise. That agreement led us to remove our opposition to AB 1340,” the Uber spokesperson wrote.
Despite support from the rideshare giants, Gonzalez said the companies should be watched closely as the landmark unionization law is implemented next year.
“Look, Uber needed something. They wanted a reduction of their insurance. And so I think it was a strategic decision on their part to say we need or we want to reduce our liability if an Uber driver kills somebody or hits somebody. And in exchange we'll agree to this process,” Gonzalez said.
Back at the rideshare parking lot at the San Francisco airport, Mohammad Yaqoobi takes a break as he waits next to his minivan for his next ride. He’s been driving for Uber and Lyft for the past eight years, but now he’s worried about what the adoption of driverless cars will mean for his job.
Yaqoobi also said it doesn’t seem like there is as much business for him in San Francisco as there used to be.
“That's a little bit scary because we have a rent, we have a lot of things going on,” Yaqoobi said. “We have kids, family, so that's why [it’s] a little bit stressful for me.”
Yaqoobi said he thinks a union could offer more job security and higher pay. He’s already signed up.
