A hundred drivers, applications VTC Uber (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) gathered Wednesday in New York to demand better conditions of pay, a few days before the ipo was highly anticipated Uber.
The gathering took place at mid-day in the district of Queens in New York city, near a building where are located the headquarters of the groups Uber and Lyft in the american metropolis.
This engagement followed a drivers ‘ strike in the american city between 07: 00 and 09: 00 local, a word order followed by 10,000 drivers in new york, according to the organizers.
During the rally, the protesters were many placards calling for a higher remuneration to the applications of VTC, on which one could read “hard Work = fair compensation” and “Solidarity”.
“For too long, this industry has made lot of profit on the backs of drivers”, protested Cesar Guerrero, driver for Uber for the past three years.
“I don’t think the drivers have a fair share of the profits made by Uber, Lyft and other applications”, said the driver, 57-year-old.
According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute released on Tuesday, the United States drivers Uber earn 9,21 dollars per hour, on average, once removed from the commissions paid to the application, the maintenance costs of the vehicle and their social security spending.
The rally drivers was held a few days before the long-awaited arrival of Uber to the New York stock Exchange.
Its entry on Wall Street could represent the biggest ipo of the year and the sixth in the history of the world in terms of market capitalization, expected close to $ 90 billion.
The protest movements were also planned elsewhere in the United States, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Philadelphia, and Boston. In London too, several protesters gathered.
In some cities, organizers have called for a work stoppage of 24 hours.
The New York city mayor Bill de Blasio showed his sympathy with the movement by tweeting her “solidarity”, an expression also used by Bernie Sanders, a candidate in the democratic primary, on his Twitter account.