Ride-share drivers in D.C. and other cities across the country plan to go on strike Wednesday.
The plan is to turn off their apps at noon and keep them off until midnight. Other cities include San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia.
“I just won’t drive,” an Uber driver told News4. “We need better, better pay.”
Katie Wells of Georgetown University, who has done several years of research into how Uber drivers are paid, said the drivers want to send a message
“These workers certainly have been experiencing really difficult situations for an extended period,” she said.
She explained the paperwork Uber has filed with the government in order to offer its stock to the public some time this month revealed the company’s long-term plans.
“It intends for driver incentives to go down over time, and this information is coming out as driver pay has already been reduced a number of times over the past few years,” Wells said.
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A spokesperson for Uber declined to comment, but in that filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company reported drivers earned more than $78.2 billion since 2015, as well as $1.2 billion in tips since in-app tipping was introduced in July 2017.
The drivers who plan to strike Wednesday say they feel overworked and underpaid.
“If you want to make a lot of money, they’ll drain,” a driver told News4. “You have to drive a lot, maybe 80, maybe 90 hours a week for like, $1,800 a week.”
Some drivers also are considering an organized protest at National Airport.
