Frustrated over failed state and local efforts to improve working conditions, a group of rideshare drivers is planning a one-day strike at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport next week—an action they plan to continue monthly until they see progress.
The planned work stoppage follows a New Year’s Eve strike by 200 of the group’s members across the Twin Cities.
It also comes on the heels of a new round of recommendations from a state task force that the Legislature could act on during its 2024 session.
Yusuf Haji, a spokesperson for MULDA (Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association) Members, said the group is planning a “day of action” once a month that will include a small rally at the airport and drivers turning off their apps and refusing to take rides across the metro. The first event is scheduled for January 11 and will continue on a monthly basis until demands are met.
“We’ve been too nice or too respectful,” Yusuf said. “And so now it’s time for action.”
Drivers will not pick up rides from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. the day of the rally. Yusuf said the Metropolitan Airports Commission is only allowing 100 members to gather for the rally.
MULDA Members is a splinter group formed after a disagreement between members of the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association, known simply as MULDA. MULDA says it has 1,300 members in Minnesota.
“MULDA have been too nice and we’re [MULDA Members] not, so we decided to go in a different direction,” Yusuf said.
MULDA Members said they want to put pressure on Governor Tim Walz. Yusuf said they’re not in communication with lawmakers like other driver groups.
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MULDA Members in the past interrupted meetings held by the Governor’s Committee on the Compensation, Wellbeing, and Fair Treatment of Transportation Network Company Drivers.
Although it has no active representation on the task force, the group did submit its demands for consideration, but Yusuf said the task force didn’t do enough.
For their part, the original MULDA group has remained active and optimistic after the governor’s task force submitted its recommendations, according to MULDA President Eid Ali.
“We believe that the drivers will have something that they will be happy with sometime in the near future,” Eid said.
MULDA led efforts last year to get a bill through both the state House and Senate before it was vetoed by Walz.
MULDA also had a hand in the proposed rideshare driver ordinance passed by the Minneapolis City Council in August that was vetoed days later by Mayor Jacob Frey.
Eid and other MULDA members were a part of a task force that reached a consensus on pay transparency, protections for drivers facing “deactivations” of their accounts, and a minimum compensation of $5 per ride.
The big topic the task force couldn’t agree on was drivers’ wages.
Eid said the disagreements were merely a result of a lack of time. The task force submitted its recommendations to Walz in December.
DFL Senator Omar Fateh, an author of the 2023 bill vetoed by Walz, said in a tweet on X that the task force had “failed” in its work.
Omar called for the bill to be reintroduced and passed during the 2024 Legislative session.
Meanwhile, rideshare drivers in Minneapolis are waiting to see the fate of two new proposed ordinances by the City Council that would improve driver compensation and rights.
The first of those ordinances could come up for discussion on January 19 after council members ordered an analysis of three compensation models.
