MTSU Sidelines: “Roughly 90 Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers, members of the newly-formed Tennessee Drivers Union, marched down Nashville’s Broadway Sept. 13 as part of their series of strikes that began Aug. 30.
A cacophony of classic rock and country music covers blared over car horns and the tweets of traffic officers’ whistles. The smells of barbecue, chicken and cigarette smoke did their best to mask the putrid sewer stench rising from the ground below. Skyscrapers towered over the party below….
“As Uber/Lyft keep taking more of the payouts from rides, we are finding it increasingly difficult to survive,” the union said in an Aug. 30 Instagram post. “We work 12-hour days, 7 days a week, relying on sub-minimum contract work to make ends meet. If we don’t come together as people striving for dignity then we will continue to suffer and be robbed by these two giants.”
The TDU articulated four overarching demands in their initial post: the expansion of the airport’s rideshare lot, including clean bathrooms, a curfew on electric scooter usage after 9 p.m., a reduction in the number of drivers and a pay raise based on the duration and distance of each ride.”