Walz once faced a revolt from Uber and Lyft in Minnesota. Here’s how he handled it.
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.
Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential nominee, is putting his pro-union views front and center as he introduces himself on the national stage.
“We know that unions built the middle class,” Walz said during a speech to United Auto Workers members on Thursday. “The rest of America has to.”
Unions have so far embraced Walz as the VP pick, with organizations like the UAW and the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest federation of unions, endorsing the Democratic ticket.
A former teacher, Walz has joined striking workers on a picket line and expanded paid medical leave in Minnesota.
But when faced with a revolt from Uber and Lyft over pro-worker legislation, Walz showed a more pragmatic streak.
Walz managed to keep Uber and Lyft from leaving Minnesota while granting concessions to the companies’ contract drivers.
Navigating a ride-hailing crisis
In 2023, Uber and Lyft threatened to pull operations out of Minnesota over a bill that would have mandated a minimum wage for drivers,MinnPost reported.
Despite pressure from his progressive allies and the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association to approve the legislation, Walz surprisingly vetoed the bill.
It was his first — and so far only — veto as governor.
Walz said at the time that the bill “could make Minnesota one of the most expensive states in the country for rideshare.” He added that “increased rideshare rates will limit, and potentially eliminate, needed transportation options for vulnerable communities.”
That decision disappointed MULDA, which argued on X that Walz had caved to “corrupt corporates” and failed his “brown, Black and minority” constituents.
A year later, Walz and Democrats in the state legislature put forward a new bill that gave the drivers some of what they wanted while keeping Uber and Lyft from jumping ship.
In March, Uber and Lyft said they’d make good on their threat and stop service in Minneapolis after the City Council passed an ordinance to increase drivers’ pay, The Verge reported at the time.
A few months later, Walz signed a statewide bill into law that overrode the ordinance. The law provided more modest pay increases than the ordinance but still gave drivers a 20% raise.
This time, the companies agreed to continue operating in the region.
On X, MULDA praised the law as a “victory,”, thanking the Minneapolis City Council for reintroducing the issue and state lawmakers for getting it past the finish line.
With the law, Minnesota became the second state — after Washington and just before New York — to pass legislation to regulate ride-hailing drivers’ pay, The Verge reported.
But the law didn’t provide everything drivers wanted, such as the option to be considered employees rather than contractors, which Uber and Lyft have heavily pushed back on.
Though the regulations took a circuitous path, Walz’s ability to satisfy both big business and grassroots organizers — in addition to his wide appeal among Democrats — could bolster the Harris-Walz ticket.
