Illinois Rideshare Drivers Gain the Right to Unionize
Rideshare Drivers in Illinois have just passed House Bill 5090, which grants rideshare drivers who are independent contractors the ability to form a union with sectoral collective bargaining rights
More than 100,000 Illinois rideshare drivers are now eligible to unionize under the Transportation Network Driver Labor Relations Act, making Illinois one of the largest rideshare organizing campaigns in the country.
The new law is part of a broader national effort led by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to organize app-based drivers. Similar legislation has already been passed in California, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. Earlier this year, Massachusetts became the first state where rideshare drivers successfully formed a union with collective bargaining rights.
The legislation was sponsored by State Senator Ram Villivalam, whose district includes more rideshare drivers than any other in Illinois.
How drivers can form a union
The union leading the organizing effort is the Illinois Drivers Alliance (ILDA), a coalition made up of SEIU Local 1, IAM Local 701, and the Chicago Gig Alliance.
Before the bill passed, ILDA reached a neutrality agreement with Uber. That agreement means if ILDA collects union authorization cards from at least 30 percent of eligible drivers, it will automatically become the bargaining representative for Illinois rideshare drivers through a card-check process instead of a traditional secret-ballot election.
Another union could challenge ILDA only if it first collects cards from at least 10 percent of eligible drivers, in which case the Illinois Labor Relations Board could hold an election.
Not every person who has ever driven for Uber or Lyft is eligible. To qualify as an active driver under the law, a driver must have completed at least as many rides over the previous six months as the median Illinois driver who completed 10 or more trips during that same period.
A competing union effort
The only other union actively seeking to represent Illinois rideshare drivers is the International Brotherhood of Operating Engineers (IBOE).
IBOE originally had its own neutrality agreement with Uber before ILDA secured Uber’s support. Since then, IBOE has reportedly attempted to seek a separate neutrality agreement with Lyft, which has not signed a neutrality agreement with ILDA.
Uber’s opposition
As the bill was moving through the Illinois House, Uber launched an unusual last-minute campaign against it. Around midnight before a key vote, the company sent messages through its app to both drivers and passengers urging them to oppose the legislation.
Uber argued that one section of the bill would classify Uber and Lyft as common carriers, similar to buses or taxis. That change could have made the companies themselves legally responsible for maintaining higher passenger safety standards and exposed them to lawsuits for injuries, rather than leaving liability primarily with individual drivers.
After negotiations, lawmakers removed that provision from the final version of the bill, allowing the labor legislation to move forward without the common carrier language.