Governor Tim Walz’s task force on rideshare policies is juggling competing interests among drivers as the deadline looms for it to finalize recommendations intended to shape legislation.
The Governor’s Committee on the Compensation, Wellbeing, and Fair Treatment of Transportation Network Company Drivers must submit its recommendations to Walz by January 1 to aid the 2024 Legislature in creating a law to govern wages and workplace protections for rideshare drivers. The task force meets one more time—December 19—before the deadline.
Minutes before the group convened Tuesday afternoon, task force members representing SEIU Local 26 and the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA) held a press conference to announce that they’d present their own proposals at the meeting.
“We’re trying to make sure that we’re open to talks, negotiations, and anything that we can get something done,” said Eid Ali, MULDA president.
Walz created the task force weeks after he vetoed a bill in late May passed by the Legislature that would have granted increased wages for drivers across the state.
Since the task force’s launch, some drivers have splintered off from MULDA and are now demanding their own representatives on the task force and in other negotiations, including discussions in Minneapolis about city ordinances for increased rideshare pay.
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Eid acknowledged Tuesday that some former members of MULDA have become disgruntled, but said that overall, drivers remain united.
“We have 100 percent of the confidence of all of the drivers who have been with us for these last two years and everything looks great,” Eid said of MULDA.
MULDA attorney Stephen Cooper said the former members are now going by the name “MULDA Members,” and that the splinter group’s name is creating “confusion.”
MULDA Members disrupted a previous task force meeting, but were not present Tuesday. The group told Sahan Journal they’d be present for the last meeting.
Task force members on Tuesday debated pay transparency, driver support, and due process as it relates to deactivation, which is when rideshare companies remove drivers off their platforms for issues such as poor reviews from passengers.
The task force also discussed how drivers should be paid for returning to their home base after dropping off passengers, among other pay transparency issues.
Task force member Marianna Brown said that as an Uber driver, she’d like to see more transparency about passengers’ drop-off locations before she accepts a fare. She noted that there have been instances where the rideshare app reported a drop-off location incorrectly. Twin Cities suburbs often aren’t specified, and are instead listed as either St. Paul or Minneapolis, she added.
Eid said the policy proposal put forward by MULDA and SEIU Local 26 was “reasonable” and open to negotiation.
Among the suggestions included both in the task force’s draft recommendations and MULDA’s proposal are weekly summaries to drivers containing information such as the total time they were logged into the app and their total compensation.
The MULDA proposal also asks for easily accessible trip receipts for three years, and for drivers to be financially compensated if they are unfairly deactivated.
A major talking point during Tuesday’s meeting was how to make pay transparency information available to drivers in plain language. Task force members also debated which languages the information should be translated into. MULDA consists of primarily East African drivers.
The task force’s list of recommendations to the governor will only include items where a unanimous consensus was reached. Task force members include rideshare drivers, rideshare app representatives, members of the public, and union representatives.
The task force’s December 19 meeting will focus on compensation and insurance for drivers.
While the task force finalizes its recommendations, the Minneapolis City Council is independently looking at proposed ordinances to improve wages for rideshare drivers. The council has ordered an analysis of three different compensation models for rideshare drivers in the city.
Some Minneapolis City Council members are hoping to secure drivers rights and increased pay regardless of what happens at the state level.
The council first passed a rideshare ordinance earlier this year, but Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed it in August. The ordinance would’ve guaranteed drivers a minimum compensation of $0.51 per minute and $1.40 per mile while they are transporting a customer within city boundaries.
Minneapolis Council member Robin Wonsley is now calling for a $15 per hour minimum pay for drivers in the city. Uber has said that drivers are already making more than that.
“Last quarter, the median pay for drivers in the Twin Cities was $32.22 for time spent en route to a passenger and transporting a passenger and $23.38 per hour for all time online,” Uber spokesperson Freddi Goldstein said in an email statement.
Goldstein said Uber made a commitment to Frey in August that drivers in Minneapolis would make at least $15.19 per hour for the time it takes to get to a passenger and for transporting the passenger. That has been in place since the end of August, Goldstein said.
