Uber, Lyft, Grubhub and other drivers are striking on May 1. Here's why and what they are demanding

Your Lyft or Uber Eats order might be delayed on Wednesday.

Rideshare and delivery drivers across Nashville will join a national strike on May 1, demanding fair pay and app deactivation protections. App workers will not be working and encourage supporters to not use rideshare or delivery services on May 1.

"Across the country, the cost of living is climbing, and drivers are seeing less and less money from each ride," reads the strike pledge. "We're tired of seeing Silicon Valley executives become millionaires off our hard work, while drivers live ride-to-ride and delivery workers live order-to-order."

Workers will be striking against Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub, Amazon Flex, Uber Eats, Postmates, Instacart, and all other app companies.

Demonstrations and strikes are planned in major United States cities including New York, Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, Hartford, Tampa, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Providence, Philadelphia, Miami, Portland, Newark, and Charlotte. The strikes are being organized by The Justice for App Workers, a coalition which represents over 130,000 rideshare and delivery drivers across the U.S. The coalition was formed in New York in 2022.

According to a news release, the Valentines Day strikes of 2024 resulted in the largest display of activism around the mistreatment of app workers in the last decade. Demonstrations took place in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

On Wednesday, strikes are expected to take place in even more countries, including France and Belgium said Nicki Morris, a spokesperson for The Justice for App Workers.

What are rideshare and delivery drivers demanding?

Rideshare and delivery drivers are demanding higher wages, protections from unfair deactivations and the right to form a union so they may have a system in place to address sexual harassment, assault and "industry wide poverty wages."

"As a part of the May 1 Strike, drivers and delivery workers are calling for due process in all app deactivation cases, so workers don’t lose their livelihoods without the ability to share their side of the story and fight back against misinformation," read a news release.

Drivers and delivery workers around the country (except for in New York) have no job security because of app companies' deactivation system, said Morris. For example, if a driver denies an extra passenger in the vehicle, despite the amount being over the legal limit, passengers can file complaints and drivers are at risk of losing their jobs.

"Drivers have absolutely no recourse if a complaint is made against them," said Morris. "Sometimes, it can be as simple as a glitch in the algorithm where Uber or Lyft say your paperwork has not been updated or your background check (which are conducted constantly) did not go through, despite working for the company for many years with no issues in your report."

Diana Leyva covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com or follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @_leyvadiana

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why are Uber, Lyft, Grubhub drivers striking? What to know