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Uber and Lyft drivers are going on strike today, and I encourage you to honor their strike by not using the apps.

In cities around the world, thousands of drivers will be striking for higher pay, better benefits and more say in the companies’ policies. The strike is timed to Uber’s initial public offering, scheduled for Friday.

Uber’s I.P.O. will make millions for its top executives and big investors, much as Lyft’s I.P.O. in March did, but many drivers for the two companies don’t even earn middle-class wages. My colleague Farhad Manjoo has called Uber’s offering “a moral stain on Silicon Valley.”