If you love the idea of love, then you can prove it to me this Valentine’s Day by not calling an Uber or a Lyft or getting food delivered on DoorDash.
The ride-sharing platforms and food delivery app are expected to go on strike on Valentine’s Day as part of their continued fight for fair pay. This is the first time the group has gone on strike since Uber and Lyft went public in 2019.
This comes about a week after Lyft said it would guarantee pay for drivers. If a driver made less than 70 percent of what riders paid — after external fees — Lyft said it would pay the difference, Reuters reported. The move was the first-ever pay guarantee in the industry.
“We are constantly working to improve the driver experience,” Lyft told Reuters on Monday.
But the drivers are accusing both Lyft and Uber of taking disproportionately large commissions. The Justice For App Workers coalition, which represents more than 100,000 drivers, said in a statement emailed to Mashable that its drivers won’t be providing rides to and from airports for two hours — between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. — in 10 U.S. cities, including Chicago, Hartford, Providence, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Orlando, Miami, and Austin.
“As the cost of living continues to climb, Uber and Lyft are taking more and more out of drivers’ pockets, leaving drivers earning less and less from each ride,” Justice for App Workers said in the emailed statement. “While Silicon Valley and Wall Street take an ever-increasing cut of driver earnings, they’re raising rates on passengers and expecting consumers and workers alike to accept their increasing corporate greed.”
While Lyft drivers’ monthly earnings increased by 2.5 percent in 2023, Uber drivers’ fell 17.1 percent, according to Gridwise. And the airports won’t be the only places experiencing strikes. An independent union, Rideshare Drivers United, said that on Valentine’s Day “drivers are turning off their apps, and calling for a global day of driver action to tell the companies, passengers, and lawmakers that something needs to change.”
Uber and DoorDash both downplayed the impact of the strike to CBS News, saying they don’t expect the strikes to have a significant impact on business on Valentine’s Day. Either way, if you don’t want to cross the picket line this V-Day, consider picking up your loved ones from the airport yourself. After all, it’s a pretty romantic gesture.
