What the union will ask for is not yet set. Organizers plan to survey drivers on first-contract demands. The union's bargaining will cover pay, deactivation rules and the effect of algorithms on drivers' work. Drivers have also pressed for a voice on autonomous-vehicle policy, but whether that becomes part of the talks has not been settled. The timing of the first bargaining sessions has not been announced.
The roots of this go back to Proposition 22, the 2020 ballot measure that kept drivers classified as contractors, which the companies backed with more than $200 million. In 2024, the California Supreme Court upheld most of the state's worker-classification law but struck a provision that effectively barred gig drivers from unionizing. Massachusetts allowed rideshare driver unions in 2024, and Illinois has since passed a similar law. AB 1340 took effect Jan. 1, 2026, and petitions opened in May. For attorneys, the next phase is bargaining. This is the first time a labor group has used the new law to organize the ride-hail industry, so the first contract will set the template for how talks with a workforce of several hundred thousand drivers proceed. Watch the scope of the demands, especially on deactivation and algorithmic management, and whether autonomous-vehicle policy makes it to the table.