Uber has agreed to support state legislation that paves the way for drivers to unionize in a deal that scraps a city ordinance to raise driver pay.
Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd) on Monday canceled a committee vote for a bill that would have boosted driver pay and added worker protections.
The City Council member had been pushing the legislation since 2023, but he called the deal with Uber a win for the state’s estimated 100,000 drivers who use the ride-hailing app.
“This is a huge victory for rideshare drivers and the broader fight for economic justice in our city and state,” Rodriguez, chair of the Workforce and Development Committee, said in a statement.
The Illinois Drivers Alliance said it will soon file a bill in Springfield to allow drivers in the state who use the ride-hailing app to unionize and bargain collectively, even while drivers remain independent contractors.
Uber has agreed to support the bill — and not to oppose a push to unionize the drivers by the Service Employees International Union Local 1 and IAM Local 701.
The deal was announced Monday morning, hours before Rodriguez was set to call a vote on an ordinance that would have required drivers to be paid anytime they were logged into the app, and not just when a passenger was in the car.
But the passage of Rodriguez’s bill was not certain. He had delayed a vote on the ordinance last week to allow Council members to ask questions of representatives from Uber, Lyft and the unions.
Some alderpersons supported the ordinance they said would give drivers a living wage. Others opposed it out of fear that the price of trips would rise for hospitality workers downtown. Uber warned that the bill would have pushed the company to lay off 10,000 drivers.
Rodriguez had been negotiating for months with the unions and ride-hailing app companies over language in the ordinance. Those negotiations will now move to Springfield.
Uber said the deal is the “best path forward” to protect “the flexibility drivers consistently tell us they value most, while also creating a meaningful path to organizing.”
“We are committed to working to advance thoughtful, balanced policy that reflects the needs of today’s workers and supports innovation in the economy,” Josh Gold, an Uber spokesman, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Lyft, which was not part of the deal, said the company wants to be part of the negotiations that will take place in Springfield.
“Our goal is to ensure that we can both improve working conditions for drivers while still balancing the needs of riders who rely on the service,” company spokesperson CJ Macklin said in a statement.
The Springfield bill is still being drafted. The unions said it would draw some inspiration from reforms recently passed by ballot referendum in Massachusetts, where drivers won the right to a union in November.