ByJanice Gassam Asare, Ph.D.,
Senior Contributor.
California just became the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow drivers at ride-hailing companies to unionize. Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed new legislation that will allow drivers at companies like Uber and Lyft to join a union and bargain for better wages and benefits. California has approximately 800,000 drivers that are part of the ride-hailing industry. Within different fields and professions around the country, unions provide critical and necessary infrastructure to protect employees, allowing them to advocate for themselves and to ensure they are treated equitably.
Corporations aren’t usually enthusiastic about the formation of labor unions. According to the Economic Policy Institute, even though 60 million U.S. workers want to form unions, the number of active labor unions has declined over the last several decades. Opposition from corporations, and more specifically the union-busting efforts that many corporations often engage in, is a large part of the rapid decline in labor unions that has been seen over the years. Union-busting can include tactics like pushing out union activists and supporters, retaliating against union activists, closing unionized locations (which Starbucks has been accused of), and enticing workers to oppose unionization through rewards. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Economic Policy Institute, unions provide several benefits including higher wages for employees, more health insurance coverage for workers, and better employee benefits overall.
