Will protesting Uber drivers disrupt Super Bowl transit? “No one is really happy to go to work and do the same job for less pay. We often hear rumblings about strikes, but Uber won’t react unless it affects their bottom line.”

Will protesting Uber drivers disrupt Super Bowl transit? “No one is really happy to go to work and do the same job for less pay. We often hear rumblings about strikes, but Uber won’t react unless it affects their bottom line.”
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Will-protesting-Uber-drivers...
By Carolyn SaidFebruary 4, 2016 Updated: February 4, 2016 4:05pm

Photo: Seth Wenig, Associated PressUber drivers, including Kalsang Tsering (right), chant and yell as people enter and leave an Uber office in New York.
A price-cut war between Uber and Lyft has sparked Uber driver protests and highlighted differences in how some drivers view the two ride-hailing companies.

Uber slashed prices for its service in January and February in various markets, saying it was combatting a seasonal slowdown. In San Francisco, prices went down 10 percent, while fares in the East Bay and South Bay were reduced by 20 percent. Drivers can still make a guaranteed amount per hour if they hit certain benchmarks, such as accepting 90 percent of ride requests, it said. Lyft followed suit with price cuts in a number of markets, telling drivers that it was the only way to keep customers. In the Bay Area, Lyft cut prices by 10 percent.

On Monday, hundreds of drivers protested at Uber’s New York headquarters, according to the New York Times. On the same day in San Francisco, about 200 drivers honked horns and snarled traffic outside Uber’s Mid-Market headquarters to protest, according to BuzzFeed.

Some protesters are now targeting the Super Bowl, seeking to disrupt Uber’s partnership with the game. The ride service has a dedicated space at Levi’s Stadium in exchange for between $250,000 and $500,000 in cash and services. Game-day protests could include a “strike” — drivers staying home instead of ferrying the hordes of people at the game. Flyers and postings on social media also ominously mention creating traffic gridlock outside the stadium — something that seems guaranteed to happen even without a protest.

‘Ridiculously low’

“The problem is the fares are ridiculously low,” said Mario Leadum, who led Monday’s protest in San Francisco. “It’s great for customers but hurtful for drivers.”

Three years ago, Leadum said, he made about $3,000 a week after driving five long days for Uber. “Now the same hours, and I’m fighting to make $650 or $700 in a week,” he said. He’d like to see prices restored to 2014 levels. Leadum said he has 5,000 local drivers who support the protest and said they’ve started to make connections with upset drivers in other cities.

In a YouTube video, Leadum exhorts drivers to protest on Sunday, saying that Uber will cut rates from the current $1.15 a mile to 50 cents a mile that day. Uber categorically denied that rates would be cut so low. In fact, most observers expect both Uber and Lyft to raise their rates on Sunday to lure more drivers.

“Every time Uber cuts prices, there’s a lot of unrest among drivers,” said Harry Campbell, a driver who runs the Rideshare Guy blog and podcast. “No one is really happy to go to work and do the same job for less pay. We often hear rumblings about strikes, but Uber won’t react unless it affects their bottom line.”

Campbell praised Lyft for being transparent in a frank letter that co-founder and President John Zimmer sent to drivers after it cut prices in Uber’s wake.

“Previously, we tried preserving prices (when the competition cut them) but saw a negative impact on ridership,” Zinner wrote. “This leads to fewer rides and creates a bad situation for both the driver community and company long-term.” Zimmer said Lyft recently invited some drivers to brainstorm solutions to keep the price cuts from hurting them and is implementing some of the ideas.

Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty ImagesUber drivers protest recent fare cuts Monday in front of the ride service’s New York offices.
Uber has some 40,000 active drivers, defined as those who’ve used the app at least three times in the past month. All are contractors who work whenever they want, meaning the word “strike” doesn’t apply. On social media, many drivers say they are looking forward to price surges on Sunday.

“Once you’ve hit a certain critical mass with drivers, you can probably afford to make them a little unhappy from time to time,” said Jan Dawson, chief analyst with Jack Dawson Research. “They’re up to speed with your system, rely on the income and can’t afford to stop doing it, at least not in a large numbers.”

Commodity market

Price wars are to be expected in what’s essentially a commodity market, he said. “Ultimately Uber and Lyft are more or less the same thing,” he said. “Price continues to be one of the biggest levers to differentiate from one another and get one up on the competition.”

Veena Dubal, an associate law professor at UC Hastings who studies ride service drivers, said momentum is growing for protest movements, including recent connections between some partners and organized labor. Some regulatory changes could allow Uber drivers to organize and even unionize, despite not being employees.

“As these companies lose their favorite-son, sharing-economy edge, there could be more consumer attention to the workers’ plight,” she said.

But Dawson said consumers ultimately do not make choices based on political ideals.

Not much happened after talk of boycotting Uber in late 2014 over reports that it might intimidate journalists who criticized it, he said.

“We all love to espouse these principles until we really need a ride, then cold reality sets in and we end up ordering an Uber anyway,” he said. “In reality, principles rarely affect companies very much. People object to Google collecting all sorts of information about us, but it has the best search engine. Apple workers in China aren’t treated the way you’d like, but what other phone are you going to use?”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid