Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via AP Images
Uber drivers protest outside of Uber's World Trade Center offices in New York on January 5, 2023.
This article was produced by Capital & Main, an award-winning publication that reports from California on economic, political, and social issues. It is co-published here with permission.
Chicago rideshare drivers gathered between the first and second terminals of O’Hare International Airport on June 25 to launch their latest call for change: an end to “unfair deactivations.”
It felt personal for Bernard Moses, a 50-year-old driver based in Plainfield, Illinois. In May, Moses said, Uber deactivated his account without explanation. The change left him without income he’d depended on since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his massage therapy business.
He and about a dozen other drivers wore red sandwich boards declaring “No Uber Without Drivers” on one side and “Fired By An App” on the other as they handed out flyers to travelers waiting for pickup.
When Uber and Lyft receive a safety report regarding a driver, they deactivate the driver’s account while they investigate the complaint, effectively banning them from work. Drivers say existing processes do not sufficiently inform drivers of their offenses and give clear guidelines about which offenses lead to deactivations. They also want an independent body to manage the process and appeals.
Neither company shared recent deactivation figures with Capital & Main. However, Uber’s 2019-2020 safety report indicated that the company removed 80,000 drivers from the app in response to the results of annual background checks. Meanwhile, a 2023 report from the Chicago Gig Alliance noted that rideshare companies, including Uber and Lyft, permanently deactivated 4,000 Chicago drivers in 2022 and 10,000 since 2020.
“We’re at the mercy of Uber activating us or deactivating us without due process,” said Saul Garcia, a 57-year-old rideshare driver living in the Hermosa neighborhood of Chicago who has driven for Uber since 2015.
THE DEMONSTRATION ADDS TO RIDESHARE DRIVERS’ ongoing efforts to address their working conditions across the U.S. and in Europe.
Chicago rideshare drivers have already been pushing for passage of the Chicago Rideshare Living Wage and Safety Ordinance, known as the FairShare Ordinance, introduced last year. That legislation would raise drivers’ pay, give them two weeks’ notice before deactivation and require Uber and Lyft to share deactivation details with city regulators and drivers, among other new regulations.
Last week’s demonstration linked the Chicago effort to a national campaign protesting deactivations, Activate Respect, coordinated by the Chicago Gig Alliance, which supports area workers in food delivery, rideshare and other industries; Gig Workers Rising, a California-based organization advocating for app-based workers; and several other groups. Organizers estimate that 100 drivers demonstrated between Chicago, Denver and San Jose.
The move to coordinate campaigns between cities is important, said Vivek Ramakrishnan, a researcher who has studied the gig economy and a former researcher at the UCLA Labor Center. “This multiyear, multijurisdiction approach [shows] drivers won’t stand for this tactic of just moving out of your city,” he said.
Since then, Moses said, he has driven only with Lyft, and his income has been cut nearly in half.
In the European Union, lawmakers have also pushed for greater transparency around deactivations for “platform workers,” a category that includes rideshare drivers. In April, the European Parliament passed legislation banning automatic “robo-firing” of platform workers via algorithm and requiring companies to tell drivers how their performance is tracked and ranked. The European Council must now weigh in on it.
Uber spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada said via email that the company does automatically deactivate drivers’ accounts in some instances. For example, the company might do so if a driver’s documents are about to expire, Condarco-Quesada said.
Lyft spokesperson Eric Smith said, in an emailed statement, that the company has introduced an in-app button for drivers to appeal deactivation decisions and connect with company staff. Uber’s Condarco-Quesada said the company has implemented a “human-led” appeals process to prevent unfair deactivations. “We remain fully committed to continually improving our processes to better serve drivers,” Condarco-Quesada said.
FOR MOSES, DEACTIVATION HAS BEEN CONFOUNDING—and devastating.
After being locked out of his Uber account, Moses went to the company’s Chicago office to get an explanation. A company representative told him that the deactivation stemmed from a customer who said they “felt uncomfortable with me,” he said. “As you and I know — that could mean anything,” Moses said, gesturing toward his hand to imply anti-Black racial bias. He said he has since made multiple phone calls seeking greater detail, but has not been able to reach anyone.
Since then, Moses said, he has driven only with Lyft, and his income has been cut nearly in half.
In a statement, Uber’s Condarco-Quesada confirmed that the company had reviewed Moses’ case but did not share details regarding his suspension. Condarco-Quesada also confirmed that the company had contacted him regarding his account via phone and in-app. “He is welcome to reach out to us regarding his account status,” Condarco-Quesada said in a statement.
“I deserve more of a voice, a chance for my voice to be heard and to give my side of the story … especially with such a vague complaint that’s ‘made to feel uncomfortable,’” said Moses. “To just cast me aside like that without any explanation, it just doesn’t seem fair.”
