Business
Gig drivers strike in L.A. and other major cities, hoping to disrupt Valentine's Day business
Los Angeles Lyft driver Shan Sedigh held out his phone. On the screen, Lyft’s app detailed a Feb. 9 ride for which Sedigh’s passenger paid $105.40. Sedigh earned a little more than half of that at $53.11.
“This is why I’m here,” Sedigh said, surrounded by scores of ride and food delivery drivers Wednesday as they protested outside an Uber drivers support hub in Westlake, west of downtown Los Angeles, part of a one-day work stoppage to demand better wages.
“I pay gas, insurance, repairs,” the 50-year-old West Hills resident said. “Lyft just connects the driver to the customer. Why do they get 50%?”
The one-day strike hit more than 20 major cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Los Angeles. Food delivery drivers in London joined in, vowing to turn off the apps between 5 and 10 p.m., according to the Associated Press. The action targets what is typically a busy holiday for ride-hailing and delivery giants.
Although there have been sporadic, isolated protests by drivers in various cities in recent years, organizers say the Valentine’s Day protest could be the most ambitious labor action to date, with drivers across the country coalescing organically.
Drivers are protesting what they describe as poor wages and rapidly shrinking transparency in how the companies pay drivers their share of earnings.
California gig law Proposition 22 — which was established by a voter initiative bankrolled by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other companies in 2020 — has hurt drivers, said Nicole Moore, a driver and the president of Rideshare Drivers United, the 20,000-member Los Angeles group coordinating local drivers.
The law promised some benefits to drivers — including a minimum earnings guarantee and healthcare reimbursement — but they have proved difficult to access or so minimal as to be useless, she said.
Drivers have complained that companies track their behavior on the apps to determine what the companies will pay the drivers, and the workers’ only power is to accept or decline a job.
Rideshare Drivers United protest in front of the Uber Greenlight Hub in Los Angeles.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
“It’s a shell game and there’s no way to enforce this stuff because it’s all an algorithm in a black box — how we’re paid and whether or not we get benefits,” Moore said.
Gig drivers group Justice for App Workers told the Associated Press that thousands of drivers had stopped working at some point Wednesday, with protests at airports in cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Newark, N.J.
Uber and Lyft representatives dismissed any effect from the strike.
“These types of events have rarely had any impact on trips, prices or driver availability,” Uber spokesperson Zahid Arab said in an email. “During last year’s Valentine’s Day ‘strike,’ we saw an increase in trips in the U.S.”
Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin said that “traditionally, these events have not had a meaningful impact on wait times or service levels.” As of Wednesday afternoon, the company had not noticed any significant disruptions, he said.
Drivers interviewed at the Wednesday protest in Los Angeles said that about a year ago companies began showing drivers their rates offered on rides, giving them the option to accept or decline, but around the same time appeared to offer fewer well-paying longer rides, leaving them with shrinking earnings.
Frank Kash, 30, waved a sign reading, “Corporate Lies Are No Surprise.” Scrawled across the sign in Farsi was an expletive aimed at Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who, like Kash, is Persian.
“He is basically stealing from us,” Kash said. “Khosrowshahi, you owe me money.”
For an Uber trip he drove Tuesday, Kash said he earned $24; the customer told Kash he paid about $60, making Kash’s earnings about 40% of the fare.
“It’s a shame,” he said.
Macklin said Lyft made new commitments this month to increase driver pay and transparency. They include providing a clearer summary of the “new minimum earnings guarantee that drivers will always make at least 70% of the weekly rider fares after external fees,” he said.
He said the company is also providing a new in-app button for drivers to appeal deactivation decisions and providing direct access to a specialized support team focused on appeals. Drivers have complained that the apps haphazardly shut down their account access, and that the decisions are difficult to get reversed.
“We are constantly working to improve the driver experience,” Macklin said in an email.
Of concerns raised by drivers, Uber spokesperson Arab said the “vast majority of drivers are satisfied.”
He disputed that drivers’ take of fares represented a small portion relative to Uber’s and said the company has made significant investments in driver benefits afforded by Proposition 22, investing more than $800 million since January 2021.
“Uber’s effective take rate in the U.S., net of commercial insurance costs, is well below 20%,” he said. “Every driver on the Uber platform benefits from the historic protections and benefits afforded by Prop. 22.”
Uber said its U.S. drivers earn an average of $33 an hour, while Lyft said its U.S. drivers make an average of $30.68 an hour, or $23.46 per hour after expenses.
Rideshare Drivers United demonstrated in front of the Uber Greenlight Hub on Valentines Day in Los Angeles.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Drivers held isolated protests over the last year in various cities, including Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami and Tampa. Most recently, drivers protested at airports in San Diego and Atlanta in December.
Luis Arias, 32, who has driven for Uber and Lyft since 2017, said he had never participated in driver protests before December.
But long workdays and shrinking earnings prompted him to help organize recent protests at San Diego Airport. Drivers protested at the airport’s waiting lot on Dec. 19 and marched to Terminal 2 in a Dec. 23 action.
“We have to work too many hours to get the money, and we spend a lot of money on gas, on car services. It feels very unfair,” Arias said.
Nascent organizing among San Diego drivers is gaining traction, he said. About 100 drivers participated in the first protest; now, the informal San Diego group has grown to some 600 members, Arias said.
At the Los Angeles rally, driver Teresa Pitt addressed the crowd from atop a pickup truck, calling on gig workers to push the companies for more.
“There should be drivers lined up this whole street,” she said.
Some drivers sporting neon-green “Rideshare Drivers United” shirts held signs themed to the holiday: “It’s time for a break up with Uber and Lyft,” read one, with a graphic of a red broken heart.
By about 2p.m., the group of about 100 protesters had thinned out. Some left to head over to Los Angeles International Airport, where another driver protest was scheduled to be held later in the afternoon, while others left for their other day jobs.
Dear Mr. Pelley:
I meant what I said in my letter last week to the 60 Minutes team: joining 60 Minutes is the honor of my career and I am grateful to be working alongside the people who have contributed to the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced. While I’m new to 60 Minutes, I’ve devoted my career to investigative journalism and storytelling. I started this job excited to collaborate and to benefit from the wisdom and experience of the 60 Minutes veterans, with you among them. For that reason, one of the first things I did in my new role was call you to talk and invite you to dinner. It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort. Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation-demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress. I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama. I am eager to work alongside those who share this goal.
Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path.
Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (“CBS”) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately. Enclosed is your formal termination letter.
Sincerely,
Nick Bilton
Executive Producer, 60 Minutes
The co-founder of Aspiration, Joseph Sanberg, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday after defrauding investors and lenders of over $248 million.
The startup, an eco-friendly digital banking company boasting fossil fuel-free investments, carbon offsets for gas purchases, and a debit card with cash-back benefits for shopping at clean companies, was founded by Sanberg and Andrei Cherny. Cherny left the company in 2022 and has not been charged.
Sanberg, an Orange County native, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in October after being arrested in March last year. Aspiration subsequently filed for bankruptcy and liquidated all of its assets by July.
Sanberg and venture capitalist Ibrahim AlHusseini, who also faces charges, together forged a series of bank statements in order to obtain loans. From 2020 to 2021, the pair forged AlHusseini’s bank statements to show millions of dollars in assets in order to obtain millions of dollars from lenders.
Additionally, they forged a letter from their audit committee stating that $250 million in funds were available, when in reality Aspiration had less than $1 million. The amount of loans defrauded exceeded $248 million.
In 2021, Sanberg artificially inflated Aspiration’s 2021 revenue by $44 million by recruiting 27 fake customers to sign letters of intent pledging tens of thousands of dollars per month for tree planting services. Sanberg himself funded the contracts and used the inflated revenue numbers to obtain more loans.
The charges sparked an NBA investigation into salary cap allegations due to Aspiration’s connections with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer personally invested $60 million in Aspiration, all of which was lost. He is now the target of a civil lawsuit alleging his participation in the scheme. Ballmer denies the allegations.
The team announced a $300-million sponsorship deal with Aspiration, and Clippers player Kawhi Leonard signed a four-year, $28-million marketing contract with the company, which reportedly performed no duties. The issue has raised concerns about how players are circumventing the NBA’s salary cap.
The team lost the $300-million sponsorship deal and an additional $20 million paid for carbon offset purchases.
Residents in the city of Monterey Park will be the first in the nation to vote on a permanent ban on data centers Tuesday.
If approved, Measure NDC would prohibit data centers within the city limits and could only be overturned by another vote.
Yard signs saying “No Data Center” in English and Chinese with images of dragons line sidewalks in the San Gabriel Valley city.
As a wave of data center opposition sweeps the country, numerous towns and counties across the U.S. have instituted temporary moratoria and other restrictions on the facilities. But only a handful have instituted indefinite bans, and just four other towns have sent related matters to the ballot.
Supporters are hoping the vote will set a precedent for the rest of the region, where residents are fighting proposals in Vernon and City of Industry.
“This is about as permanent a ban as we can get,” said Steven Kung, co-founder of the group No Data Center Monterey Park. “Winning Measure NDC would send a huge message to the rest of the San Gabriel Valley about how residents don’t want data centers.”
The ballot measure emerged from the fight against a 247,000-square-foot center proposed in 2024 by the Australian-owned investment firm HMC StratCap for a residential area in Monterey Park.
The facility would have sat less than 500 feet away from the nearest home and used three times the electricity of the 60,000-person, predominantly Asian American city.
While the developer touted the potential for jobs and tax revenue, residents expressed concerns about noise and air pollution, rising electricity rates and a potential to lower property values.
The company pulled its plans in late March following public outcry and a March 4 city council vote to extend a temporary data center moratorium and place a ban on Tuesday’s ballot.
In a letter to the city council, HMC StratCap said it would pursue a different use for the land and would not engage in a ballot measure fight.
The city council later banned data centers indefinitely, the first in California to do so, said Mayor Elizabeth Yang. But she’s still been out campaigning for the measure with all four other council members.
“If a council puts in an ordinance, a future council can reverse it too,” said Yang. “With the ballot measure, unbanning it is a lot harder because you need the entire city to vote on it.”
The measure proposes the ban “to protect air quality, drinking water resources, and public health” and “prevent impacts to electricity and water rates.”
While California places third in the country for existing data centers with about 300 facilities, it hasn’t been a hot spot in the recent AI-driven data center boom. High electricity rates, expensive land and regulatory hurdles mean that fewer, and smaller, facilities are currently planned than in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois or Arizona.
“Most of California’s data centers are small by today’s standards,” said Shaolei Ren, an engineering professor at UC Riverside who studies how to reduce the environmental impacts of data centers. “Ten years ago, they would be medium-sized, but the power demand for new AI data centers has increased a lot.”
The average operating data center demands 45 megawatts, according to the Washington Post, while the average planned one would draw 430 MW. The one proposed for Monterey Park would have required about 50 MW at peak demand.
As proposals crop up in SoCal, they’re met with fierce opposition. Montebello, El Monte and Baldwin Park have all enacted temporary moratoria, and Alhambra recently banned data centers as part of a zoning code update. City of Industry, Vernon, City of Commerce and Santa Fe Springs are moving in the other direction, trying to court developers and streamline data center approvals. Community groups are fighting that.
Outside the San Gabriel Valley, residents of Coachella and Imperial County are showing up in droves to protest local proposals.
Matthew Shaw, a volunteer with the Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, who recently published a report on opposition to AI data centers, said a vote to ban them in Monterey Park “would lead to copycats, partially because so many groups are just opposed to any data center development at all.”
While there is no formal opposition to Measure NDC, some building trades like Ironworker Local 433 supported the Monterey Park data center when it was still live before city council. Those in the data center industry are lamenting the state of public opinion.
“These are multi-billion-dollar assets that are built by multi-trillion-dollar companies. These things will get done,” said Mehdi Paryavi, chairman of the International Data Center Authority. “My biggest problem is that our industry does not invest enough in community engagement.”
Paryavi said towns that seek to limit data centers are missing out on thousands of jobs generated by data center construction, operations and customers, as well as faster artificial intelligence speeds and better performance.
Kung said local community organizers are “looking at the empirical evidence” and seeing a ban as a win.
“We’ve never seen a city that embraces a data center and is like, ‘Look how our quality of life has increased, look how all the revenue has gone into citywide improvements,’” he said. “That just doesn’t exist.”
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