Uber and Lyft drivers are rallying outside City Hall today to call for the passage of City Council bill Intro 276, which would protect us from unfair firings, or as Uber and Lyft call them, deactivations. Although we make up New York City’s largest private sector workforce serving 1 million passengers a day, Uber and Lyft drivers live in fear of being fired suddenly without cause.
When Uber unjustly fired me, I sank into poverty, debt, and depression. I’m joining the rally today so that no one else experiences that injustice.
In 2018, I took out a $15,000 loan to buy a salvaged vehicle and signed up for Uber. At first, it was great. My income from Uber was enough to cover my loan payments, rent, and child support.
One day in September 2020, Uber dispatched me for a fare. When I arrived at the passenger’s destination, she told me that I had to take her somewhere else. The passenger was not the Uber account holder, and I explained that Uber does not allow drivers to change drop-off locations unless requested through the app, so she either had to request a new ride or ask the account holder to change the drop-off location.
She began to verbally abuse me, and threatened to get me fired. Many times, riders unhappy with Uber’s policies take their anger out on us, the drivers, even though we have no control or say in the manner. She then got out of the car and slammed the door so hard I worried she had damaged the vehicle.
I thought that was the end of the nightmare. But a few minutes later, I realized my Uber app wasn’t working. I turned my phone off and back on. I was a 5-star-rated driver, and I hadn’t done anything wrong, so it didn’t occur to me that what appeared to be a glitch in the app could be a sudden end to my livelihood.
Later that day, I received a message from Uber that someone had reported me. I thought Uber wanted to hear my side of the story so I wrote back immediately telling them what happened. Uber responded that “we conduct our investigation thoroughly” and that “looking at your account, we can see that you are doing an amazing job offering respectful and professional trips to your riders.”
Instead of the thorough investigation promised, Uber sent a follow-up message claiming they had received multiple reports of “problematic behavior” and were permanently deactivating my account. I couldn’t defend myself because I didn’t know what I was accused of.
In the following weeks, I visited Uber’s office several times to try to get my job back. Each time, Uber’s representatives said they couldn’t help.
Without my income from Uber, I couldn’t afford child support payments. I couldn’t make car loan payments. I couldn’t pay rent. I was evicted from my apartment and had to sleep on the floor of a friend’s house.
Five years later, I haven’t recovered from the financial devastation that Uber caused me. My mental and physical health deteriorated from the stress. I’m now living in a small one-bedroom without enough room for my children to stay comfortably.
My daughter cries and tells me how much she misses having a room of her own in my home. I dream of taking my children to visit their grandmother in Nigeria, but I can’t even afford to take them for a weekend holiday let alone pay for airfare.
I’ve continued to drive for Lyft since 2019, but Lyft doesn’t have as many customers as Uber and I don’t make enough money to dig myself out of debt.
It’s not just me. Thousands of New York City Uber and Lyft drivers have been unjustly fired and left without income overnight, on the hook for loans they take out just to work, with no transparent process for appealing deactivations. During the pandemic Uber and Lyft called us essential, but they continue to treat us as expendable.
The movement that my fellow Uber and Lyft drivers and I built with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance gives me hope. Together, we are fighting for an end to unfair deactivations. We’ve gained the support of key City Council members, including the main sponsor of Intro 276, Shekar Krishnan.
Intro 276 would give Uber and Lyft drivers rights rooted in law for due process, notice in most cases, and an independent appeal process — so the companies are no longer prosecutor, judge, and jury. New York already passed just cause protections for fast food workers.
Now, it’s our turn.
Ahuruonye was unjustly fired as an Uber driver in 2020.
