Updates on Minnesota Rideshare and Restaurant Organizing

Winding Path to Victory for MN Rideshare Drivers

After a tumultuous few months of bold organizing, tentative alliances, corporate threats and state-vs-municipal wrangling, Minnesota rideshare drivers are getting a raise. Faced with the possibility of Uber and Lyft pulling out of the Twin Cities, Governor Tim Walz brokered a compromise which pre-empts the rideshare pay ordinance passed by the Minneapolis City Council in April. The new state statute sets a driver pay rate slightly lower than the Minneapolis ordinance, but it applies statewide. The new statute also directs rideshare companies to pay into a fund to support nonprofit driver assistance centers, and it preserves the possibility of future legislation to classify these workers as employees (a prerequisite to organizing a union). 

Eid Ali, a rideshare driver and President of the Minneapolis Uber and Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA), counts the new state statute as a major win. MULDA (a Workers Confluence grantee) fought for the Minneapolis ordinance. But as the threat of preemption loomed Ali and other MULDA leaders worked with the Governor’s office to find a compromise. 

Read previous Workers Confluence coverage of this issue here and here.

Click here to read the Minnesota Reformer’s explanation of what’s in the new state legislation.

Kim’s Workers Vote Overwhelmingly for the Union

Shortly after publication of this Confluence post on the union campaigns at several Twin Cities, a strong majority of workers at Kim’s formally voted to join Unite Here Local 17. Soon they will come to the table with the restaurant’s management to begin bargaining their first contract.

For additional context on the current wave of restaurant worker organizing, check out this recent piece from Racket MN.