time off work to gather in the early morning at LAX. Meanwhile, tons of working Uber and Lyft drivers dropped passengers off at the airport. In Long Island City, Queens, a lone protester held a sign that read "Uber, Lyft, Juno, Via drivers on strike" as several ride-sharing cars swarmed the area to pick up commuters requesting rides.
Five days in advance, organizers urged drivers to abstain from using ride-hailing apps for durations ranging from two hours to a whole day. The action was poised to put a dent in Uber's biggest markets across the globe, organizers said.
Uber told USA TODAY there was no noticeable impact in their daily operations.
Only about a dozen drivers showed up to a rally in New York City's Financial District Friday morning, and according to local news outlets in Boston, it was a normal day at the airport for travelers trying to hitch a ride using an app. Though later in the day, drivers and protesters blocked traffic on Market Street in front of Uber's San Francisco headquarters.
So what happened?
It's hard to tell exactly.
Experts say that everything from a disconnected workforce to disinterested drivers can be to blame. Not to mention, not everyone can take time off during peak driving hours to protest a job that their livelihood relies on.
DRIVERS
A wide range of people work for ride-share companies including college students looking to make extra money between classes and chauffeurs who support their families using the optional tips you leave at the end of your trip.
That diverse and disjointed workforce might work against organizers who are hoping for big turnouts.
"Some drivers will be deeply invested, and others may say 'I don't care about that,'" said Fabio Rojas, a professor of sociology at Indiana University who has written books on social movements. "There's a lot of natural variation that could keep a protest from getting off the ground."
Unlike workers who share an office space, ride-hailing drivers typically don't have to interact with one another. While they may have coordinated social meetups, "those groups aren't really built for politics," Rojas said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment