In the seven years Yolanda Rodriguez has worked as a driver for Uber and Lyft, she says she’s been sexually harassed by customers, exposed to dangerous situations and had her account deactivated multiple times with no path for recourse through her employer and no other way to financially support her family.
Rodriguez and thousands of other ride-hailing service drivers in Massachusetts have signed cards indicating their support to join a union, less than one month after voters passed a ballot question that would make unionizing a possibility.
“This job is hard as a woman, especially as a mother,” Rodriguez said through a translator at a rally outside the state’s Department of Transportation Building Wednesday. “It’s very important that we have a voice to make the companies listen to our needs. We need to be able to fight for stronger protections.”
Uber and Lyft drivers rally outside the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Building in Downtown Boston, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024.
Tori Bedford GBH News
Around 100 Uber and Lyft drivers chanted union songs and held up signs indicating their support for a future coalition known as the App Drivers Union at Wednesday’s rally, an event supported by local organizers from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Building Service Employees International Union.
Read the full article here: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2024-12-04/thousands-of-massachusetts-uber-lyft-drivers-move-to-form-a-union
Published: Jan 13, 2025
