Tennessee rideshare drivers call strike during Country Music Awards

Drivers, organized with the newly-formed Tennessee Drivers Union, are demanding fair pay and better working conditions

November 19, 2024 by Peoples Dispatch
Tennessee rideshare drivers stage an action in September (Photo: Tennessee Drivers Union)

Tennessee Uber and Lyft rideshare drivers have called a strike on Wednesday, November 20, the day of the Country Music Awards. Drivers, organized with the newly-formed Tennessee Drivers Union (TDU), are demanding fair pay and better working conditions. These rideshare workers aim to use the strike to show that they are “essential to Tennessee’s 30 billion-dollar tourism economy” by disrupting an event that brings in millions of dollars each year. 

According to TDU, Uber and Lyft take a cut of 60% to 80% from each ride. TDU reports an example of a rideshare driver earning USD 12.58, and a customer being charged USD 52.72. “In this scenario, customers and drivers alike suffer from high prices and low wages, respectively, while Uber and Lyft make the profits,” the union says. “Drivers are earning poverty wages and most are working 12-hour days, 7 days a week, just to scrape by. Uber and Lyft individualize their pay rates, which means they can pay two drivers different rates for the same ride. Due to a lack of regulations, the apps do not disclose the parameters they use to justify this difference.”

According to TDU Co-President Arkangelo Wilson, “we are not fighting for customers to get overcharged. Riders are getting robbed as well. Uber and Lyft are charging riders more and at the same time they are paying the drivers less.”

TDU rideshare workers also claim that Uber and Lyft have deliberately oversaturated the market of drivers by lobbying to be exempt from the requirement that drivers must have Tennessee license plates in order to operate in the state. In response, TDU is demanding that the state ban out-of-state drivers. 

“Instead of making people drive less or resulting in lower prices for customers, this manufactured demand has only flooded our streets with drivers looking for rides,” according to the union. “This works effectively as a union-busting tactic, increasing competition among drivers and allowing Uber and Lyft to impose precarious conditions on the drivers. All other commercial drivers in Tennessee must have in-state licenses.”