Uber drivers in Victoria vote to unionize

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 03, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

More than 500 Uber drivers successful Victoria, B.C., have received national certification from the province's labour relations board.

The drivers volition present look to bargain for corporate rights with Uber, the ride-hailing elephantine that precocious expanded crossed the province.

In a statement, United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Canada, whose Local 1518 volition correspond the drivers, says it is the archetypal clip gig workers successful Canada person had a national certified.

A national spokesperson said the Uber drivers volition beryllium the archetypal successful Canada to person a ceremonial accidental successful their workplace, and they volition soon bring a fig of concerns to a negotiating table.

"By and large, they see things similar wellness and information compensation, exploring whether oregon not there's a anticipation of benefits, and things that would ... signifier a regular portion of a corporate bargaining agreement," said Pablo Godoy, UFCW Canada's director for emerging sectors.

Godoy said the process was astir a twelvemonth successful the making, and it took a batch of enactment among drivers to speech to each different and motion national cards.

The spokesperson noted that, fixed Uber's model of having drivers motion themselves up for gig work, determination were immoderate unsocial wrinkles to having ride-hailing drivers go portion of a union.

In B.C., if much than 55 per cent of a workplace votes to motion national cards, they automatically go certified with the B.C. Labour Relations Board nether a single-step certification process.

Godoy said that implicit 500 drivers signed national cards, and the national estimated determination were astir 600 oregon 700 drivers successful Victoria astatine the time. Ultimately, the labour committee was satisfied the national met the 55 per cent threshold.

"The absorbing and unsocial portion of this manufacture is that, fixed the obstruction to introduction being truthful low, we cognize that astatine immoderate fixed infinitesimal determination tin beryllium an influx of drivers onto the platform," Godoy said.

"And truthful we're looking guardant to, successful bargaining, knowing precisely the fig of caller members that UFCW Canada is welcoming into their family."

WATCH | Uber expands crossed B.C.: 

The national typical said that drivers privation to spot amended provisions astir wellness and safety, arsenic good arsenic much transparency astir payments, app standing systems and relationship deactivations.

Godoy said the national hoped to statesman bargaining with Uber successful the adjacent period oregon two and soon thereafter have the union's archetypal corporate agreement.

Beefed up gig idiosyncratic regulations

Last August, the state passed expanded gig idiosyncratic regulations, which included a minimum wage of $20.88 an hour, workers' compensation coverage, and measures for wage transparency — though the wage lone applied to clip spent connected jobs, not clip spent waiting for jobs.

At the time, Uber expressed concerns about the imaginable of giving workers a minimum wage, but provincial officials did not backmost down from the regulation.

The measures came aft a fig of high-profile cases involving threats to drivers and reports of them not being capable to marque ends meet.

WATCH | High-profile lawsuit of Uber operator being attacked: 

The rules meant gig workers would beryllium classified arsenic employees, opening the doorway for further idiosyncratic protections.

In a Wednesday statement, Uber said determination volition beryllium nary alteration to the acquisition of drivers and passengers successful Victoria.

"With the caller modernization of [B.C.] labour laws ... drivers arsenic online level workers tin find whether they privation national representation," work a connection from Laura Miller, Uber Canada's manager of nationalist policy.

"We volition beryllium sitting down with UFCW 1518 to sermon the issues raised by drivers."