Uber and Lyft drivers file out of the waiting lot at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after being dispatched to pick up passengers on May 13, 2024. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Uber and Lyft drivers get minimum wages; nursing home groups sue to block holiday pay for workers; Trump’s labor secretary pick is union-approved; and farm groups want their workers exempted from deportation.
Uber and Lyft minimum wages take effect Sunday
A new minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers in Minnesota takes effect on Sunday, the result of a hard-fought, two-year campaign to raise drivers’ wages, insurance coverage and protections from unfair discipline.
Drivers for transportation network companies will earn at least $1.28 per mile and 31 cents per minute on average for time spent driving passengers. With that rate, the typical driver in the Twin Cities can expect to earn at least $34.58 per hour before they pay for gas and other expenses — a 14% increase over 2022 pay — according to an analysis by the Service Employees International Union based on a state study of driver earnings. The law entitles drivers to at least $5 per trip, 80% of any cancellation fee and additional pay if they have a wheelchair accessible vehicle.
Customers in the Twin Cities metro area can expect to see about a 25% increase in pricing at first, according to an Uber spokeswoman.
Loren Balazs, a full-time Uber and Lyft driver, said he’s worried the higher prices might lead to a decrease in demand but is overall optimistic the law will increase pay, especially on longer rides.
The new law also gives drivers the right to appeal being fired — or “deactivated” — on a quick timeline; expands insurance requirements for companies (which will take effect Jan. 1); and requires companies to contract with a nonprofit organization to provide “culturally competent driver representation services, outreach and education” to the many East African and other immigrant drivers on the platform.
Uber and Lyft did not say which nonprofit they’ve decided to contract with to provide those services.
The law seemed to be written with one organization in mind: the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association.
The group was at the forefront of the grassroots campaign for minimum wages for ride-hail drivers, and lucrative contracts with Uber and Lyft promised to be a valuable reward for years of activism.
The group’s president Eid Ali, however, said in an interview that MULDA has not contracted with either company. He said his organization will continue to advocate for drivers.
“The pay increase is a positive step though long overdue,” Ali said. “Drivers are now watching to see how the TNCs comply with the law.”
Ali and MULDA are currently being sued by former members alleging fraud and deceptive trade practices. Ali denies the allegations and his attorney, Stephen Cooper, moved to dismiss the case.
The minimum wages will likely make competing even more challenging for Uber and Lyft alternatives that entered the market after the two ride hail giants threatened to leave over regulations passed by the Minneapolis City Council. State Democrats banned cities from enacting their own pay standards as part of the state legislation regulating driver pay.
Balazs said there’s been no reason for him to switch to the other companies, like Wridz or MyWeels, since Uber and Lyft demand remains strong.
Nursing homes sue over state labor standards board’s holiday pay requirement
Two nursing home industry groups filed a lawsuit against the state on Tuesday aiming to block the state’s Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board’s new rule entitling workers to time-and-a-half on 11 state holidays next year.
The Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board, created by the DFL-controlled Legislature in 2023, voted earlier this year to raise the minimum pay for nursing home workers to an average of $22 per hour in 2026 and $23.49 per hour in 2027. The three nursing home industry representatives abstained from voting on the rules, which passed with unanimous support from the government and worker representatives.
The two industry groups — LeadingAge Minnesota and Care Providers of Minnesota — argue in their lawsuit filed in federal court that the rule violates federal labor law by interfering with collective bargaining agreements with unionized workers. The union representing most nursing home workers in the state, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, pushed for the board’s creation and the union’s president voted in favor of the rules as a member of the board.
“By dictating how providers grant holiday pay, the board is inserting itself in the collective bargaining process, and that violates federal law. Such overreach is unheard of in any other sector in Minnesota,” the groups said in a statement through their partnership called Long-Term Care Imperative.
Monyou Taye, a nursing assistant and SEIU member, wrote in a statement that she was frustrated that the nursing home industry was spending money on a lawsuit rather than pay for their workers.
“It is a slap in the face that nursing home owners, after getting over $300 million in 2023, are saying they don’t have enough money to pay their workers time-and-a-half holiday pay,” she said, referring to a big infusion of state money into the industry after a bipartisan push. “For those of us who have to work these holidays, being away from our families while our bosses get to relax at home, it is frustrating that nursing home owners have chosen this path instead of trying to address the staffing issues we all agree are a crisis.”
Workers and labor advocates say the raises will improve care for the state’s elderly and disabled by helping attract and retain more quality workers, but nursing home leaders say the wage mandates could tip their balance sheets into financial insolvency.
The higher labor costs come as the Biden administration planned to phase in minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes, mandating a registered nurse be on site 24 hours a day and for residents to each receive around three-and-a-half hours of nursing care per day. The Trump administration could roll back those requirements.
Trump’s Labor secretary pick is union-approved
Labor leaders were unexpectedly pleased by President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of a union-endorsed Republican congresswoman to be the next Secretary of Labor, while some Republicans fear she is too sympathetic to organized labor.
Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who narrowly lost her re-election bid for a second term, is the daughter of a Teamster and one of just three House Republicans to support the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a legislative package that would make it easier for workers to unionize, add penalties for illegal union busting and ban so-called right-to-work laws, which allow workers to decline paying union dues for the cost of bargaining and representation.
Teamster President Sean O’Brien lobbied on behalf of Chavez-DeRemer and had won some goodwill from Trump for being the first Teamster president to speak at the Republican National Convention and declining to make a presidential endorsement. (Local and regional Teamsters overwhelmingly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.)
On Twitter, now called X, O’Brien thanked Trump: “Nearly a year ago, you joined us for a Teamsters roundtable and pledged to listen to workers and find common ground to protect and respect labor in America. You put words into action. Now let’s grow wages and improve working conditions nationwide. Congratulations to (Chavez-DeRemer) on your nomination.”
Other labor leaders remain skeptical; Chavez-DeRemer has a poor rating from the AFL-CIO.
The Labor secretary can be a champion of workers and unions or a bulwark for employers, depending on how zealously the agency enforces federal wage and hour laws, worker safety standards and child labor regulations.
Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination is a significant departure from Trump’s previous labor secretaries, and could represent a thawing of icy relations between labor and the Republican Party. She is already facing some resistance from Republican senators who must confirm her appointment.
“I will need to get a better understanding of her support for Democrat legislation in Congress that would strip Louisiana’s ability to be a right-to-work state, and if that will be her position going forward,” Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said, according to Punchbowl News.
The Teamsters are currently working with Sen. Josh Hawley on a version of the PRO Act that Republicans would vote for, according to Bloomberg.
Farm groups want their workers exempted from deportation
U.S. farm groups and some fellow Republicans hope Trump’s central campaign promise of mass deportations without exceptions will indeed have exceptions for farm workers, about half of whom don’t have legal work authorization, Reuters reported. (This graph is a helpful primer on the vital role of immigrants in the nation’s food system.)
U.S. Rep. John Duarte, a Republican and California farmer, said deporting agricultural workers threatens rural economies and the farms that supply the nation’s food: “I would like to hear more clearly expressed that these families will not be targeted.”
Deporting the 11 million or so people in the United States illegally would also hurt other major sectors of the economy by slowing production and driving up prices, including in construction, hospitality and manufacturing, even as those sectors face already face a labor shortage. That’s to say nothing of the logistical and humanitarian nightmare of removing so many people, most of whom have lived in the U.S. for a decade or more and are in mixed households with legal immigrants or U.S. citizens.
In his first term, Trump told farmers he wouldn’t target their workers, although his administration did conduct some raids at poultry and produce processing facilities. Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan said immigration enforcement will focus its efforts on those with criminal records, which is unchanged from recent Democratic administrations, but he said no undocumented immigrant will be exempt.
Keeping undocumented workers in a state of limbo is good for disreputable farm owners, construction contractors and other employers who exploit the vulnerabilities of a workforce less likely to report wage theft, labor trafficking or other abuses.
Farmers have a path to hiring an unlimited number of seasonal workers — if they can show there are not enough U.S. workers available — through the H-2A visa program, but as Reuters notes, many farmers say they cannot afford to pay the minimum wages required by the visa and provide the required housing. Those with year-round operations, like dairy farms, aren’t eligible.
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