“No love for Uber this Valentine’s Day!” was the message written on signs that over 100 drivers held outside YVR airport this past February (Shepert, 2024). These gig workers, who are not unionized or even considered employees, held an unofficial one-day strike in 44 cities to protest their dissatisfaction with the largest ride-sharing platform on the planet: Uber (Shepert, 2024). As one of the fastest-growing companies in the past few years, Uber has completely revolutionized transportation and become a main face of the gig economy (Pettica-Harris et. al, 2018). Despite this success, the ridesharing company has also become a prominent symbol of precarious work, and numerous researchers and workers alike have criticized Uber for its lack of stability. This analysis will explore Uber and the platform economy through a sociological lens by examining its success, the challenges of its precarity, and the isolation experienced by its workers. By critically analyzing these aspects, the essay aims to offer actionable suggestions for advancing towards a future of improved working conditions.
Founded in March 2009 in San Francisco, Uber capitalized on the 2008 Recession and utilized the idea of the ‘sharing economy’ to make ride-hailing easy and provide accessible and flexible work to those desperate and out of employment (Rosenblat, 2018:24-25). Fifteen years later, Uber has 140,000 drivers in Canada alone, providing millions of rides and stimulating the Canadian economy by the billions (Uber Canada, 2023). To provide a picture of these many drivers, the demographic reflects a spectrum of employment scenarios, including those driving part-time alongside studying or other jobs, those unemployed with Uber as their only source of income, and occupational drivers considering Uber as their profession (Peticca-Harris et al., 2018). The latter group of occupational drivers also extends to those driving taxis, and one study found that 80% of taxi drivers in Canada were made up of recent immigrants, with those being predominatly South Asian (Xu, 2012:1). The large majority of new immigrants employed in driving for Uber and other ridesharing companies is due to the low barrier to entry in comparison to other jobs, allowing these groups to easily access this form of employment (Rosenblat, 2018:29). These low barriers to starting are also a factor to why those in-between jobs or working multiple jobs make up a high percentage of gig workers.
Despite the allure and popularity of Uber as a quick and easy money oppourtunity, the job provides little in terms of security or stability. To recognize this, it is first necessary to define and understand precarity in the workforce. Precarious employment is characterized by job insecurity, lower wages, hazardous working conditions and few social benefits (Marani et al., 2020:672). This form of employment has been on the rise in Canada in recent years, and the platform economy is one of the driving factors. This is because the platform economy blurs the lines between being self-employed and yet still dependent on a company for income, with taxi and Uber drivers being a prime example (Marani et al., 2020:672). This grey area between independence and dependence allows for companies like Uber to get away with offering low wages and little benefits, in exchange for high flexibility and the feeling of being your own boss. The implications of this are that precarious employment becomes seen as normal and expected, as a study of Torontonian Uber drivers found that a simultaneous acknowledgement and rejection of their own precarious employment by instead focusing on the advantages of driving for Uber (Peticca-Harris et al., 2018). In this way, many gig workers do not recognize precarious employment as exploitative by the company but rather as an inherent part of the job, which creates fundamental challenges in addressing the systemic issues perpetuating their vulnerable conditions.
When viewing precarious work through a sociological lens, it is natural to associate Marx’s theory of alienation and the structural conditions of capitalist labour. Marx’s theory analyzes how workers experience estrangement and detachment in certain employment structures in capitalist societies (Marx, Easton, and Guddat, 1967:287-301). Despite differences between early industrial wage labourers and platform workers, the foundation of a “perpetually insecure workforce that is easily replaced by a plentiful reserve army of labour” makes the comparison to Uber all too clear (Glavin, Bierman, and Schieman, 2021). A recent study made this connection and through interviews found that Uber is in fact an alienating and estranging sector. It was found that Uber employees face difficulty in making social connections or feeling like a collective due to the isolating nature of the work and lack of communal interaction within the organization (Glavin et al., 2021). This leaves workers estranged from each other, fulfilling Marx’s theory of alienation in the context of labour, where the absence of meaningful social connections contributes to a sense of detachment and disconnection (Marx et al., 1967:287-301). This isolation, argued by the Glavin et al. (2021), serves larger structural purposes by preventing collective action against structures of exploitation.
Uber drivers challenges do not stop at alienation, but also encompass hidden expenses, long hours, and health issues. Despite the company’s large success, its workers face numerous hurdles, such as the lack of compensation for ‘unengaged’ time spent on the job - time in between active ‘gigs’ - which currently goes unpaid (Ivanova and Sioufi, 2023:11). Another problem is the amount of work-related expenses, for gas, vehicle repairs, mobile data, parking, and more that all must come out of personal earnings (Ivanova and Sioufi, 2023:12). Further, the ramifications of prolonged time in a car was studied in the context of taxi drivers, revealing that the limited breaks and long hours spent sitting had significant contributions to poor physical and mental health (Marani et al., 2020:672). The precarity of their employment offers them no access to employer-based health benefits, amplifying the strain on well-being (Marani et al., 2020:673). Combined with the lack of connection, these financial and health difficulties make working for Uber highly precarious.
Reviewing the challenges that Uber drivers face, the situation can feel bleak in terms of potential improvements. However, there are solutions that, if implemented effectively, could reduce the level of precarity that these drivers are subject to. To work towards better pay and security for Uber drivers and other gig workers, the solution I propose is to create the opportunity for unionization. Due to Uber drivers’ unofficial employee status and aforementioned isolation, creating large and meaningful collective action is extremely challenging. Access to a union would make this easier. Unfortunately, the current laws in British Columbia present obstacles that make it near-impossible for unions to organize Uber. Presently, there is no accessible way for union leaders to acquire a list of all Uber drivers due to the nature of the work. This is a challenge, as the card-check process for certification that unions use hinges on ability to secure a majority of the total workers a company (Skrzypinski, 2023). Without this process, union leaders are unable to organize and certify at Uber and other platform-based apps (Ivanova and Sioufi, 2023:17). Thus, unions and other related groups are in the process of lobbying BC government to change the laws and allow unions access to sectoral bargaining for gig workers (Ivanova and Sioufi, 2023:17). If the government changes the law to allow unions to certify and bargain for gig workers, it would not only reduce isolation by unifying and collectivizing Uber employees, but also increase the likelihood of gaining more equitable and fair pay. As a solution to the challenge of precarious work in the platform economy, BC government officials should heed the advice of unions and other institutes like the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives who have clearly outlined the current challenges and recommended unionization as a path to alleviate them.
As the platform economy continues to grow, and Canadians become increasingly dependent on Uber as a form of transportation and employment, the level of precariousness looms larger. While many value Uber’s accessibility and flexibility, these benefits come at a hefty cost, one that has been described by scholars as a representation of “post-capitalist hyper-exploitation” (Peticca-Harris et al., 2018). The current and unfortunate reality is that despite the resilience that the drivers outside YVR airport showed in organizing their unofficial strike, the corporate giant of Uber did not feel any effect from it (Shepert, 2024). In order to create real, lasting change, BC law must be revised. Enabling sectoral bargaining and unionization would not only address the challenges faced by gig workers but also usher in a new era of equitable labour practices and conditions.
References
Glavin, Paul, Alex Bierman, and Scott Schieman. 2021. “Über-Alienated: Powerless and Alone in the Gig Economy.” Work and Occupations 48(4):399–431.
Ivanova, Iglika and Veronique Sioufi. 2023. “Raising the Bar for App-Based Work”. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Marani, Husayn et al. 2020. “The Impact of Working Conditions on the Health of Taxi Drivers in an Urban Metropolis.” International Journal of Workplace Health Management 13(6):671–86.
Marx, Karl, Loyd D. Easton, and Kurt H. Guddat. 1967. Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society. New York, NY: Anchor.
Peticca-Harris, Amanda, Nadia deGama, and M. N. Ravishankar. 2018. “Postcapitalist Precarious Work and Those in the ‘Drivers’ Seat: Exploring the Motivations and Lived Experiences of Uber Drivers in Canada.” Organization 27(1):36–59.
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Shepert, Elana. 2024. “‘Shame on Uber’: Metro Vancouver Rideshare Drivers Go on ‘strike’ at YVR Airport.” Vancouver Is Awesome. Retrieved March 7, 2024 (https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/uber-lyft-ride-share-strike-vancouver-yvr-airport-2024-8306382).
Skrzypinski, Catherine. 2023. “British Columbia’s Card-Check Certification Makes It Easier to Join a Union.” Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved March 7, 2024 (https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/british-columbias-card-check-certification-makes-easier-to-join-union#:~:text=%22From%20a%20union’s%20perspective%2C%20the,lower%20cost%2C%22%20Noonan%20said.).
Uber Canada. 2023. “Supporting Cities Post Pandemic: Uber’s Impact in Canada in 2022.” Uber Newsroom. Retrieved March 7, 2024 (https://www.uber.com/en-CA/newsroom/uber-canada-economic-impact-report-2022/).
Xu, Li. 2012. “Who drives a taxi in Canada?”, Report, March, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ottawa.