London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Union calls on UK Uber users to join 24-hour strike over revelations

Union calls on UK Uber users to join 24-hour strike over revelations

Public asked to avoid using ride-hailing service on Wednesday in response to issues raised by Uber files
A trade union representing “gig economy” workers is calling on Uber customers to join a 24-hour strike in response to the Uber files, a series of revelations about the cab-hailing app published by the Guardian and its media partners.

The App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) invited Uber users to avoid using the service for a day on Wednesday and instead join a demonstration at the company’s headquarters in London.

The ADCU is demanding increased pay and conditions for its drivers and measures to address issues raised in the Uber files.

A trove of more than 124,000 documents, which was leaked to the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and international media partners, revealed last week how Uber broke laws, duped police and secretly lobbied governments.

Uber has said that it “will not make excuses for past behaviour that is clearly not in line with our present values. Instead, we ask the public to judge us by what we’ve done over the last five years and what we will do in the years to come.”

ADCU said Uber had not gone far enough, questioning the company’s response to a landmark ruling last year by the supreme court, which found drivers were not self-employed contracters but workers who were entitled to rights such as minimum wage and holiday pay.

The union said Uber was interpreting drivers’ working hours as lasting from the cab’s dispatch to dropping off a customer. Instead, the period should include waiting times, which the ADCU claimed accounted for up to 40% of drivers’ working period.

Fares should also be increased to £2.50 a mile and 20p a minute, with Uber’s commission capped at 15%, the union said.

The Uber files uncovered how the San Francisco-based company gained access to top-level politicians around the world as it lobbied for regulatory changes to allow it to operate.

The ADCU said Uber was still exercising significant “unfair” lobbying heft in the UK, including having meetings with MPs.

Last, the union called for the dismissal of Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, the head of the food delivery service Uber Eats, whose involvement in the use of “kill switches” and controversial software called Greyball to fool law enforcement was revealed in the Uber files.

Gore-Coty told the Guardian he had been “young and inexperienced and too often took direction from superiors with questionable ethics”.

Uber has insisted it has changed for the better since the arrival of Dara Khosrowshahi as chief executive in 2017 triggered an overhaul of the company’s corporate culture.

James Farrar, the general secretary of the ADCU, disputed the claim, saying drivers had “no choice but to strike and take to the streets”.

An Uber spokesperson said: “The ADCU represents a tiny proportion of active drivers on Uber. For over a year now, GMB union has served as the voice of drivers in the UK following our historic recognition agreement which helped secure new worker protections including holiday pay and access to a pension plan.

“With demand up following the pandemic, Uber drivers are earning more than ever – in the first quarter of 2022, they earned on average £29.72 an hour, including holiday pay, when actively engaged on the app.

“The combination of higher earnings, new protections such as holiday pay and a pension and trade union recognition in the UK has led to more than 10,000 new drivers signing up with Uber in recent months.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×