Uber users have been asked to join the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) strike in the latest battle against the drive-hailing service. The union has asked customers to join the 24-hour strike outside Uber UK’s London headquarters.
The strike will take place on July 20 and will be held in protest against the minimum wage for Uber drivers and the devastating revelations recently released about the company.
Revelations against Uber
This week’s protest calls for an end to the company’s “unethical lobbying” after a series of revelations about Uber’s activities were revealed last week.
While previous damning allegations have been made accusing Uber of unethical behavior (this isn’t the first union action against the company), recent revelations about the platform and leaked files have rekindled the drivers’ longstanding complaints.
The ADCU is calling for an end to the alleged “unethical” political influence of Uber actions. The ADCU is demanding that Uber board member Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty resign after he was convicted several years ago for operating an illegal transportation service in France.
Uber also faced fierce criticism after 124,000 documents were leaked to the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, revealing its efforts to lobby British politicians during a period of rapid British expansion.
In addition, in the Uber Files revelations, 83,000 internal emails drafted between 2013 and 2017 have prevailed over a corporate campaign urging Boris Johnson not to tighten the company’s private rental regulations while he was mayor of London. .
While Uber has since insisted that the company reformed its habits after Dara Khosrowshahi became CEO in 2017, not everyone is convinced of a fundamental change in the company. The ADCU that will lead the strike tomorrow has labeled the claim of a change in Uber a “lie”.
“Uber has certainly become more striker and less brash in its PR, but the brutal exploitation of workers… has only intensified,” a spokesperson said.
Allegations of brutal exploitation of the workers come after allegations were made about the pay of Uber drivers. The ADCU has demanded that drivers receive at least the minimum wage from the moment they log into the app.
The protest
The ADCU is on strike and will stage a public protest to demand that workers receive the minimum wage over workers’ rights rulings made by the Supreme Court last year.
The union argues that drivers are short of their ‘real’ working time by not being paid from the moment they log in to the Uber app.
The union is asking people not to cross the “Uber driver picket line” by not using the drive-hailing service this Wednesday.
ADCU Secretary General James Farrar said: “Uber’s intense political influence continues rapidly as the government postpones yet another long-promised labor law to curb the excess gig economy. In fact, Uber has gone a bold step beyond the ordinary. lobby to hire even elected officials for senior management positions in the company.”
“Since nothing has changed, we have no choice but to strike and take to the streets. We ask the public to support us, not just for our own sake, but to stand up to the corrosive effect Uber has on our democracy, the rule of law and the integrity of our regulatory bodies.”
The ADCU is inviting the public to take part in a demonstration at Uber UK’s headquarters in Aldgate Towers, London, this Wednesday between 12pm and 2pm.
