An estimated 100,000 rideshare drivers in Illinois could win the right to join a union under new legislation expected to be filed in Springfield this month, an effort that comes on the heels of similar campaigns in Massachusetts and California.
Because they are classified as independent contractors and not employees of companies like Uber and Lyft, gig drivers don’t have the right to unionize under federal labor law.
Even a landmark constitutional amendment passed by Illinois voters in 2022 — which enshrines the “fundamental right” to collective bargaining in the state’s constitution — protects the right of all “employees,” to unionize, not all “workers.”
The new legislation wouldn’t change drivers’ employment status, but it would give them the right to bargain with rideshare companies on an industrywide basis over wages and working conditions if enough drivers signed up with a union. State Sen. Ram Villivalam and State Rep. Yolonda Morris, both Chicago Democrats, said they intend to sponsor the legislation.
The model proposed in Illinois is similar to one approved by voters in Massachusetts, where rideshare drivers became the first in the nation to win the right to bargain as independent contractors in 2024. A similar deal came to fruition in California last fall.
The labor unions behind the Massachusetts deal, the Service Employees International Union and the International Association of Machinists, are also backing the push for the Illinois law. The legislation comes after the unions, which are organizing drivers together as the Illinois Drivers Alliance, said last summer they had reached a labor peace deal with Uber, in which the company had agreed not to fight legislation that would allow drivers to organize. That deal ended a push to hike driver pay within the city of Chicago.
Uber spokesperson Josh Gold said the company expected to be able to support new legislation in Illinois, though he emphasized Uber would need to review the bill first. “The devil’s in the details,” he said. Lyft did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Supporters of the effort say it would allow drivers to bargain for higher wages and better working conditions.
“I support it because we have no recourse when we get screwed,” said Jim Weber, a rideshare driver who said he hasn’t been closely involved with the union drive. “Unions are our only hope.”
Deals like the kind proposed in Illinois can be controversial within the labor movement because some see them as giving up on a fight to reclassify gig drivers as employees, which would give them the right to benefits like workers’ compensation and paid time off.
But supporters of the strategy say it’s the most politically realistic way to secure bargaining rights for gig drivers right now. Furthermore, they argue, many drivers don’t want to be classified as employees, preferring the flexibility afforded to them as contractors.
“I would never want to be a regular, punch-in clock with them, no,” said Mark Balentine, an Uber driver and organizer in the union drive. “This business is meant to be the way it is.”
In a survey of about 500 Chicago-area gig drivers conducted several years ago, in 2021 and 2022, researchers found drivers were split on the employee status issue: 54% of those surveyed felt drivers should be reclassified as employees, while 46% wanted to stay classified as contractors. A full 91%, however, said app-based drivers should have the right to unionize.
Bob Bruno, one of the authors of that report and the director of the labor studies program at the University of Illinois, said he believed the best outcomes for drivers would come if they were classified as employees and also given bargaining rights.
But, he said, the Illinois strategy is “the politics of what’s possible.”
Sharon Block, a professor at Harvard Law School and the executive director of its Center for Labor and a Just Economy, said she believed that those who argue drivers are misclassified as independent contractors have a strong case.
But “there is zero chance” that the National Labor Relations Board — the body that is supposed to protect the rights of private sector workers in the U.S. to form unions — under President Donald Trump would extend the right to collective bargaining to gig drivers under federal law, she said.
That makes the Illinois approach “the only way” for now, Block said. “You can’t just leave these workers on the side,” she said.
If the legislation passes, it could also tee up a large-scale organizing contest between powerful local unions. In addition to the Drivers Alliance unions, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 says it has been organizing drivers and said it has also secured a labor peace agreement from Uber.
Marc Poulos of the Operating Engineers said the union liked the sound of the IAM and SEIU-backed legislation but would not take an official position until it had reviewed it. And, Poulos said, if the proposal passes, the Operating Engineers would be looking to become the bargaining representative for rideshare drivers across Illinois.
“The workers get to choose who they want to represent them,” said Genie Kastrup, president of SEIU Local 1, one of the Drivers Alliance unions.
The Illinois law would allow a prospective labor organization to earn the right to rideshare drivers’ contact information once they secure a baseline level of support at 10%, according to Villivalam, who intends to introduce the bill in the Senate.
A labor organization seeking to represent drivers would then need the support of 30% of them to get approved as their bargaining representative. The legislation would not apply to drivers for food delivery services like Instacart or Doordash.
A new surcharge on rideshare rides would go toward enforcement of the law and help pay for bargaining representation. Villivalam’s office described the proposed surcharge as “small” but did not provide more details.
The bill, Villivalam said, would also protect workers from retaliation for organizing. “They are providing a service, getting people to their school, their doctor, and their job,” he said.
Alyssa Goodstein, a spokesperson for the Illinois AFL-CIO, said the umbrella organization for labor “absolutely support(s) organizing unorganized workers,” but is still reviewing the proposal and did not yet have an official position.
In interviews with the Tribune, drivers and their advocates said one of the biggest issues facing drivers is what they describe as “unfair” deactivations — when drivers get banned from an app, sometimes without much explanation, they say, and find they have little recourse to appeal the ban. Gig drivers have been organizing around the deactivation issue for years.
“Veteran drivers of many years are being deprived of their income overnight,” said Jeremy Saxon, who drives mostly for Uber and has canvassed other drivers to support the union effort. “One of the goals of the union is to be able to create a formal process” around deactivations, Saxon said. Uber and Lyft did not comment on the deactivation issue.
Drivers also said they have little recourse to address safety incidents that happen during rides.
Saxon said that years ago, he was driving a couple on the expressway when a fight between them got physical in the back seat. Saxon said he pulled over and called the app, but ended up having to cancel the ride and didn’t get paid for the fare. “It was 45 minutes of my time that, you know, I worked for free because I felt unsafe,” Saxon said.
Drivers said they also hoped to bargain for better pay.
“They’re going to charge you $65 for a ride, but give me $22, or $21,” said Balentine, the Uber driver.
Balentine, who lives in the Riverdale neighborhood, said his grandfather was a union representative with the Pullman porters, who worked on the railroads as porters in George Pullman’s sleeper cars.
The porters’ union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was the first Black union to secure a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation. Balentine’s grandfather died before he was born. But unions, he said, are “in my blood.”
“Nothing moves without Uber and Lyft drivers,” Balentine said. “We move this city, and it’s time that we start getting some support and some respect.”