Some Uber drivers call for weekend 'strike'

Some of the ride service billed as "Everyone's Private Driver" could go missing in Michigan this weekend.

Several metro Detroit drivers for the growing ride service Uber said they will participate in a nationwide work stoppage starting Friday afternoon to protest reduced compensation for their work.

The event is promoted on several online sites by some as a strike even though Uber drivers are considered independent contractors and not employees. The stoppage is supposed to start at 5 p.m. and run through Sunday at 10 p.m., a potential pause that would coincide with heavy usage of the service, especially among young people, according to protesters.

A company official said riders in Flint, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Detroit should not be concerned.

"We have thousands of drivers in Detroit, so we don't expect there is going to be any interruption in service for any riders who need a ride," Uber spokeswoman Jennifer Mullin said in an interview Thursday. Despite the call for a strike, company officials say they expect heavy demand for Uber services over the weekend due in part to the University of Michigan-Michigan State University football game in Ann Arbor on Saturday afternoon.

The protesters linked informally through Facebook pages are asking for Uber to boost its rates for drivers, allow passengers to tip drivers and raise other fees to elevate their take-home pay. These Uber drivers complain, for example, that rider fares have fallen to 75 cents a mile, down from $2.25 in metro Detroit.

"We have taken a significant cut in pay for doing this and overhead continues to increase," said Neil Yaremchuk, a new driver who said he was acting as a spokesman for a loose group of metro Detroit Uber drivers.

Yaremchuk, a locomotive engineer in training who drives for Uber to help pay for a costly home remodel and other household expenses, said he completes about 20 rides and takes home about $100 in net pay each time he works an eight-hour stint in his 2008 Honda Odyssey. He said he had expected to earn as much as $35 an hour before he started.

Another local driver who said he did not want his name used for fear of retaliation from the company said he would sit out the weekend as well. "I don't expect anything to come of it, but why not try," he said. "The best case scenario is that Uber is publicly embarrassed for building its business...on the backs of drivers."

In response, the company said that its model of lowering fees for riders has led to greater success for drivers in other cities and boosted pay for drivers by increasing the number of rides and the number of people using the app-activated car service.

Company statistics released on its website show that while the average uberX fare fell to $11.17 in April from $15.40 in December, the average gross revenue per hour per driver grew to $18.10 from $11.91.

The ride service offered its UberBLACK in Detroit in 2013, expanding later to other cities and launching its lower-cost uberX. Earlier this year, bills regulating ride services like Uber and Lyft passed the state House but have not been passed by the state Senate.

As of July, the company said it had more than $25 million of earnings for Uber driver-partners. A majority of state residents have access to Uber service and people in Michigan have traveled 13.5 million miles on such trips, according to the company.

Scattered protests have hit Uber before as some drivers have expressed disenchantment with working conditions. In September, a federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit in California against Uber over the payment of its drivers.

In Michigan, Uber's Twitter page has more than 4,300 followers and the company has made some public campaigns offering free service for various causes in recent months.

In July, it started a pilot program to give jurors free rides to the Macomb County courthouse. Earlier this month, Uber offered to have drivers come to a house, office or school for free to pick up a bottled water donation for schools in Flint. The city has recently seen elevated levels of lead in its drinking water.

Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewsdolan.