A large union attempts to mobilize the thousands of Uber from Quebec Uber drivers who work in difficult conditions, after having won recent success in British Columbia.
“It is not normal that platform workers are struggling to obtain the minimum wage or protections to which other workers are entitled,” says Pablo Godoy, director of emerging sectors at TUACs (United Food and Trade Workers) Canada.
The TUACs recently convinced several Quebec couriers to sign membership cards to reach their ranks.
If the union refuses to say how exactly it ensures that interest has been present for several years.
The game does not promise to be won, however.
The Quebec Labor Code specifies that only employees have the right to unionize, while Uber employees are rather considered to be self -employed.
The example of British Columbia
His union won an important victory on July 2, during the official recognition of the accreditation of more than 500 Uber drivers in Victoria, British Columbia.
About 500 Uber drivers in Victoria, British Columbia, entered the country for the first time last July.
Photo taken from Instagram / UFCW 1518
For the first time in history, the employees of this multinational have obtained the right to negotiate a collective agreement.
This was made possible by the modernization of British Columbia’s labor laws, which created a category of online platform workers, explains Mr. Godoy.
Quebec is dragging the paw in comparison, but the Ministry of Labor still launched a consultation on the future of work in the digital age last year.
In his brief, Uber Canada, who collaborated with Tuac Canada to offer standards, also argues that platform workers should have the right to join a union in Quebec.
The modernization of our labor laws is also deemed urgent by other organizations which defend the deliverers and drivers of Uber and Company.
“Our system does not adapt quickly enough,” says Cheolki Yoon, president of the CA of the Immigrant workers center.
Not quite the minimum
In Ontario and British Columbia, recent laws also force large platforms to pay their workers respectively the minimum wage and 120% of the minimum wage … but only during active hours.
This means that the many waiting moments are still not remunerated, as noted by our investigation office by making bicycle delivery for a week.
“Being paid for the hours worked, it should however be the basis,” said Jennifer Scott, president of Gig Workers United, a group of platform workers based in Toronto and herself a bicycle delivery person to Uber Eats.
