(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Boston Uber and Lyft drivers are planning to strike on Wednesday, joining ride-share drivers in other major cities including New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
The strike is meant to send a message, happening ahead of Uber going public with its initial public stocks offering.
Felipe Martinez is an Uber and Lyft driver in Boston who told WBZ NewsRadio's Shari Small he'll be striking.
"This is in solidarity with about five to seven other ride share organizations that have been uniting and organizing since Uber and Lyft started to lower the pay in the past year and a half," Martinez said. "There's investors becoming millionaires off of the sweat of the drivers, and we just want to see a little bit of it trickle down to the drivers," he said.
Martinez said Uber has made changes to the way drivers are paid on surges, and lowered the pay from $1.20 per mile to $.70 per mile.
"There's no transparency," he said. "We don't know where we're gonna go when we pick someone up, we don't know how much we're gonna get paid when we pick them up."
He says the strikers are calling for people to turn off their apps on Wednesday and use another form of transportation.
"We're asking for the passengers and the drivers on May 8 to please turn off your app for a few hours with solidarity of the strike and the action," Martinez said. "We hope that they use mass transport, the bus, the T to the best of their ability. We hope people show solidarity with us."
WBZ NewsRadio's Shari Small (@ShariSmallNews) reports