Mayor’s veto of city council vote puts drivers back at square one

Uber and Lyft drivers demand fair wages and treatment

Rideshare drivers have been in for a rough ride over fair wages and disciplinary practices the past year.

On Tuesday, Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed city council legislation passed last Thursday by a 7-5 vote, that would have paid rideshare drivers a fixed minimum and established fair disciplinary standards. In vetoing the council legislation, the mayor secured a pledge from Uber to pay drivers a minimum rate and to work with a local organization to navigate the deactivation appeals process. Frey also plans to convene a working group to draft an updated ordinance, duplicating efforts already done by the city council and its staff. 

After last week’s city council vote, Uber and Lyft had threatened changes in services in Minneapolis because they contend the ordinance would require them to charge more for rides, harming those who use the service. 

The mayor’s move is similar to that of Gov. Tim Walz earlier this year, when he exercised his first-ever veto of a bill since taking office, involving similar rideshare legislation. Like Frey, he convened a group to develop legislation for the next session.

Many drivers have struggled to make a living since working for rideshare companies that decimated the taxi industry. Marianna Brown of Woodbury once had a fare to drive someone from the Twin Cities to Iowa. “It pays $98 for over 150 miles. Gas to fill up your tank is $70. What’s left? You took your whole tank of gas to go [round trip]. And I drove back empty,” said Brown.

It’s situations like these that led her to join a group of mostly East African rideshare drivers to demand better treatment from companies like Uber and Lyft. “Slavery was abolished years ago,” said Brown. “Martin Luther King marched for us to avoid slavery. And Uber is putting us back to where we started. How can we survive if we cannot pay our bills?” asked Brown. 

As drivers struggle, passengers, frustrated with high fares charged by rideshare companies, are eager for rideshare services that transit agencies plan on rolling out.

How rideshares became a fixture in the Twin Cities

When Uber arrived in Minneapolis, they initially operated without a license and insurance. Then-Councilmember Jacob Frey authored legislation to allow them to operate, which passed nearly unanimously in 2014. 

“When Uber and Lyft came into this market, the taxi industry, which was thriving at the time, got into trouble with them, until [Uber and Lyft] just finally wiped out that industry,” said Eid Ali, president of the Minnesota Uber-Lyft Drivers Association and himself a former taxi and now rideshare driver. “So, most of the drivers who used to drive taxis now transitioned to Uber and Lyft.”

As of May, both Minneapolis and St. Paul have just under 20 licensed taxi vehicles and 35 licensed taxi drivers remaining. Both numbers pale in comparison to the thousands of vehicles and drivers the cities had a decade ago. Although many taxi drivers switched to the Uber and Lyft platforms, taxi companies remain afloat thanks to business from local schools and health insurance companies by providing non-emergency medical transportation for those on Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare.

Despite the challenges of being a rideshare driver, many prefer it to driving a bus. “You have to get a special license to drive a bus or train. [It’s] too much work to drive a big bus. I’m over 60 years old. So, for me to do that, it wouldn’t be healthy,” said Brown. It’s why they’re fighting for fair wages and treatment.

The mayor’s deal

In vetoing legislation proposed by the city council, Mayor Frey announced he is convening a group that includes “drivers, labor unions, business associations, disability advocates, City staff and council representation, Mayor’s staff, and representatives from Uber and Lyft,” to craft a new ordinance.

Frey also announced that he had secured a commitment from Uber that guarantees drivers en route to pick up a passenger in Minneapolis, or actively transporting a passenger within city limits, will earn at least the minimum wage ($15.19 per hour), calculated on a bi-weekly basis. According to Frey, Uber has also agreed that no driver will make less than $5 for any trip through city limits, no matter how short the trip. Both commitments have already taken effect. 

In addition, Uber will reportedly work with Somali Community Resettlement Services (SCRS), a local nonprofit, to assist drivers who want to appeal a deactivation decision. 

The city council legislation

The legislation that was passed by the Minneapolis City Council last Thursday, and subsequently vetoed by the mayor, requires that drivers be paid a minimum of $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute for every passenger they transport, with a $5 minimum fare, as well as fair disciplinary treatment. The fare structure is modeled after rideshare pricing in Seattle and New York City. In addition, the amendment introduced by Councilmember Andrea Jenkins and adopted by the council required that drivers be paid more to transport someone in a wheelchair. 

The legislation also required rideshare companies to outline procedures for which a driver is deactivated. A driver can be deactivated if convicted of a serious crime or any crime committed against a passenger. Companies must provide drivers five-day notice before deactivation unless the drivers are found to have committed a “major infraction that endangers public safety.” Drivers will also have the right to appeal deactivation. 

Mayor Frey said he had wanted the ordinance to be delayed because the governor’s advisory committee might propose legislation that preempts local legislation. In a speech addressing the mayor’s points made last Thursday just ahead of the vote, Councilmember Robin Wonsley said they do not need to defer to the state when the city has been at the forefront of ensuring mandatory sick and safe time and a higher minimum wage. 

“Many of the provisions that [have become] policy are based on actions that this body has led—for the minimum wage, for earned sick and safe time, the things that actually set the threshold for the state to move on this past legislative session,” said Wonsley. 

Before the mayor’s veto, Uber said they might have to restrict the services that they offer to fall in line with the council ordinance. “At a minimum, we would have to move to a premium-only product,” said Uber spokesperson Freddi Goldstein. Lyft, which pulled its bike-share and scooters off Minneapolis streets earlier this year, threatened to leave the city entirely. 

A public solution to rideshare?

To capitalize on the success of Uber and Lyft and the frustration of rideshare users over expensive fares, transit agencies in the Twin Cities are testing something called microtransit. The service operates similarly to Uber and Lyft, with those who want a ride simply using an app to hail one.

But microtransit has some major differences. Those without a smartphone can call a dispatcher using a telephone. The fares are cheaper than Uber and Lyft, and those who don’t have credit cards can pay in cash by putting money in a farebox on the microtransit bus. However, those who use microtransit may share the ride with another passenger, usually one other person. The drivers earn W-2 wages, and some of them are unionized. 

Five such programs exist in the Twin Cities. Metro Transit micro, which serves the northside, is one of them. Ridership on the service has steadily risen since it started in September, with over 6,000 rides completed in May of this year. 

Denise Whittaker, who has not used micro, already likes the service because it is cheaper, yet operates much like Uber and Lyft. “Especially in the wintertime, you never know [how much an Uber is going to cost]. One day it’s going to be $15. The next day it’s going to be $43,” said Whittaker, adding that she hasn’t used it yet because it doesn’t go to her children’s school, which is just outside of the micro zone. 

In the suburbs, both MVTA, which runs a similar program called Connect that serves Burnsville, Eagan, Savage, Apple Valley and Rosemount, and Southwest Transit, which runs a similar program called Prime that serves Eden Prairie, Chanhassen, Chaska and Victoria, are struggling to keep up with ridership demand, in part because they don’t have enough drivers and vehicles to provide the service. 

Southwest Transit, whose drivers are unionized by Teamsters Local 120, is experimenting with getting users going to Shakopee and parts of Minnetonka, Edina, Richfield, Bloomington, Mall of America and the MSP airport to hail a Lyft ride from their Southwest Prime app. The agency subsidizes up to $10 of the cost of the ride, with the riders making up the difference. 

However, MVTA, which has already restricted how far in advance Connect bookings can be made as well as instituted a transfer policy last January, will make cuts to its regular service on September 5 to ensure they have enough “resources” to provide the service. 

Relief may come soon, as the Minnesota legislature passed a 0.75 percent sales tax for transit that goes into effect in October. This would allow Twin Cities transit agencies to expand microtransit.

Expanding microtransit could help J. Scott, a Burnsville resident who declined to provide his first name and works a shift at Amazon that starts at around 6:30 a.m. Though he lives near a bus stop and gets a free ride pass from his employer, he uses Uber to get to work, or at the very least to the bus he needs to get to work, depending on whether Uber has any drivers working on the platform early in the morning. 

That’s because the first Route 444 bus he can take to get to the Burnsville Transit Station, where he catches the last 495 of the morning that goes to Amazon, misses the connection by mere minutes. He can’t take MVTA Connect because it doesn’t start running until 6 a.m. “Five minutes makes a difference between the hundred dollars I pay just to go to work,” said Scott as he rode the 495 to work in February. “If the Connect bus ran at 5 a.m., or if there was an earlier bus on the 444, I would better utilize my [MetroPass].”

This article was updated from its print edition to reflect Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto of the measure on August 22.