Rideshare and Fast-Food Workers Strike in LA, Demanding $30 Minimum Wage

Nearly a hundred rideshare drivers are out in the streets of Los Angeles, protesting their working conditions. A group of Uber and Lyft drivers has also joined together with McDonald’s workers who are demanding their right to unionize.

The group behind the protest is the newly established Mobile Workers Alliance, associated with the Service Employees International Union. This is the first time the two grassroots organizations have come together to protest unfair wages. As rideshare protesters march down the streets of LA, they are joined by a procession of McDonald’s strikers. Some protesters disabled a nearby McDonald’s drive-thru by continuously ordering “fair wages” through the microphone.

This is not the first instance of rideshare workers taking to the streets to protest unfair wages. Last month, diners staged mass international protests against both Uber and Lyft’s unfair business practices. Los Angeles has a high concentration of rideshare workers, and lately, it has become a hotbed of unrest due to falling wages for drivers.

Protesters involved in the organizations hope to limit the amount of commission that rideshare companies can extract from their drivers, allowing an increase in the amount of take-home pay for drivers. They are requesting a $30 per hour pay floor, with half of that amounting to take-home pay, and the other half going towards various expenses of rideshare driving, like taxes, vehicle depreciation, insurance, and gas.

As for the fast food protesters, they hope to lobby for a proposed $15 an hour minimum wage. In LA county, the minimum wage will increase to $14.25 in just over a month. By 2020, it will increase to a flat $15 an hour. Uber and Lyft, along with McDonald’s, have yet to release an official statement on the matter.