Uber drivers across New York City are turning off their apps and leaving their cars at home on Monday, as they stage a 24-hour strike in protest over pay.
The strike, running from 12.01am to 11.59pm on 19 December, comes on the same day that an 11 per cent pay rise should have gone into effect for drivers on the ride-sharing app.
Instead, drivers are staging a protest outside Uber’s New York City headquarters at 3 World Trade on Manhattan’s Wall Street and across Brooklyn Bridge as they call on the $51bn corporation to “pay up”.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, the trade union which organised the protest, is also calling on New Yorkers to boycott the app in solidarity with its workers and in protest at the “heartless”, “vindictive” and “greedy” company.
“I can’t believe that Uber did this to us. With all that we do for Uber and then can’t bare to see us get a raise,” one driver said in footage posted on the union’s Twitter account.
“I was so excited about the raise. Uber shattered my hopes,” another driver said.
New York Democratic Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez retweeted a post from the union in a show of support for the workers’ strike.
The protest comes after Uber successfully blocked a scheduled pay rise of 11 per cent for drivers in the Big Apple.
The raise – from a base fare of $2.50 to $3 – was approved by the New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission back in November and was scheduled to go into effect from today.
It marked the city’s firsts increase in metered fares since 2012 and comes at a time when drivers are faced with higher gas prices and rising inflation.
But, the Silicon Valley ride-sharing giant managed to put a hold on proceedings, by filing a lawsuit against the city.
In the suit, Uber claimed that such pay increases would damage the entire ride-sharing industry by either costing the companny up to $23m extra a month or forcing it to raise passenger fares by 10 per cent.
“Drivers do critical work and deserve to be paid fairly, but rates should be calculated in a way that is transparent, consistent and predictable,” Uber said in a statement.
The company was granted a temporary restraining order by a judge.
Now, the minimum wage will remain set at $2.50 until at least 31 January when arguments can be heard at a court hearing.
Despite not paying its workers more, Uber has greatly increased passenger fares in recent years. Prices rose by 37 percent in the last three years to September, according to data company YipitData.
