In five years as a union organizer, Misty Tanner has approached employees of San Bernardino and Butte counties, and school bus drivers and custodians in Clark County, Nev. But now she’s facing a unique challenge: signing up Bay Area Uber and Lyft drivers for representation by the Teamsters.

“We’re the backbone of Uber’s business; we should have some say,” said Valerie Mitchell, a San Francisco driver who met with Tanner on Wednesday at a Mission District coffee shop. “We need a force to be reckoned with to back us, so we’re not seen as just a bunch of drivers throwing a tantrum.”

The drivers are a far-flung workforce that is by definition highly mobile and extremely varied in their hours, locations, attitudes and personal situations. Unlike most union targets, they are independent contractors, not employees. That means Uber and Lyft drivers lack even basic protections that unions fought for a century ago, such as minimum wage and overtime. The conundrum for unions: Would seeking to represent drivers validate their nonemployee status?

The question of whether drivers should be employees is a major point of contention that has spurred class-action lawsuits. While Uber and Lyft have reached tentative settlements in those cases that keep drivers as contractors, some are raising objections, and the courts may end up rejecting them, throwing their status back up in the air.

Whether you call them contractors or employees, though, with hundreds of thousands of drivers nationwide and tens of thousands in California, Uber and Lyft workers represent a potent new resource for unions seeking members — and hoping to get a foothold in the emerging gig economy in which online marketplaces connect workers with customers for services such as rides, cleaning or errands.

“We don’t like an independent contractor model; the Teamsters have been in the forefront of fighting that for years,” said Rome Aloise, Teamsters International vice president and president of Joint Council 7, the union’s Northern California/Nevada arm. “On the other hand, we’re not going to dismiss the reality of the world at this point. We think we’re better off being in front of it than behind. It’s new territory, and traditional answers may not fit.”

Not the only option

The Teamsters have been the most active in seeking to organize ride-service drivers in California, but other unions are also jockeying to be part of the action.

“We have met with the Teamsters, with SEIU and with the (New York) Taxi Workers Alliance,” said Gladys Quinones of Sunnyvale, an Uber driver who’s played a leadership role in the San Francisco Bay Area Drivers Association, one of several loose-knit groups now coalescing. “We’ll see who can help us the most.”

Likewise, Mitchell said she’d had contact with the various unions and was agnostic about which one to work with.

Despite differing circumstances, Uber and Lyft drivers seem unanimous on one key issue: higher pay, or at least more consistent rates.

“We would like the rates to be more stable, so they don’t drop them whenever they want,” Quinones said.

“Since I started driving 2½ years ago, fares have decreased so much,” said Edward Escobar, who is helping to organize a related group, United Drivers, under the umbrella name Alliance for Independent Workers. His group has also met with the Teamsters, SEIU and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, he said. “You hit that button (to see the fare), and your jaw just drops.”

Adding impetus to the movement is the fact that Uber has agreed to recognize and fund peer-run drivers associations in California and Massachusetts as part of the settlement of the class-action lawsuit over employment status. So far, the Teamsters seem most interested in that opportunity.

“We think drivers are workers who need representation, and we think we can help them, especially under the proposed class-action settlement,” Aloise said.

But other labor experts question the concept of an Uber-sanctioned drivers association and slam the Teamsters for even considering participating.

“I’m very skeptical of any association financially supported by Uber,” said Veena Dubal, an associate law professor at UC Hastings College of Law. In late May she filed an objection to the class-action lawsuit settlement on behalf of five drivers, on the grounds that leaving them as independent contractors and creating “illusory mechanisms” such as the association would exacerbate economic and social inequality.

‘Undermines the idea’

“The idea that a company would be involved in facilitating a drivers association undermines the idea of an independent labor organization that can make decisions and fight for things to benefit the workers,” Dubal said.

Uber recently recognized a group in New York called the Independent Drivers Guild, to be affiliated with a local branch of the machinists union. “Increasing driver earnings is our top priority - no issue is off the table for the Guild,” said the guild’s founder Jim Conigliaro, in a statement.

About 5,000 other Uber drivers in New York are working with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which this month filed a proposed class-action saying they should be employees. It also criticized the machinists pact.

“If a union agrees to not challenge classification or any other labor violations, not engage in work stoppages and not negotiate over economic issues, that to me is a tragic concession,” said Bhairavi Desai, a founding member of the New York group and a representative on the AFL-CIO executive council. “It’s not novel organizing; it’s just a company union.”

Likewise, she’s dubious of the Teamsters or others seeking to form an association under terms set by Uber, as could be the case in California. “Gaining numbers but losing economic power is actually a step backwards,” she said. “They would be giving political cover to the drivers’ misclassification (as independent contractors). If you give up on employee status and the right to a democratic union, workers lose far more.”

The Teamsters say they’re hardly about to roll over for Uber and that they’ve already helped drivers. This month San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros agreed to cancel late fees and penalties for business registration permits for Uber and Lyft drivers after the city sent out thousands of notices reminding drivers that they needed to register. While his office wouldn’t say how he reached the decision, the Teamsters had set up meetings for drivers with Cisneros and all the members of the Board of Supervisors.

“The question of employee status is far from being answered, but in the meantime the workers need and want representation,” said Doug Bloch, political director for the Teamsters Joint Council 7. “We have an obligation to help these workers any way we can.” One action the Teamsters might pursue is seeking state legislation to set a single business license fee for independent drivers, rather than making them bear the expense of separate ones in each city they drive in.

Pay is dropping

As a union carpenter for 20 years, Kelsey Tilander understands the importance of organized labor, he said. After injuries stopped his career, he became a truck driver, but his family wanted him closer to home. Two years ago he leased a car to drive for Lyft at a time when it was paying $2.35 a mile. “I jumped on it and was doing fine,” he said. “Then they lowered the price some more, and some more and more and more.”

Now he’s active in trying to organize other drivers to work with the Teamsters, noting that there are dozens of Bay Area companies that use on-demand gig workers, such as Postmates and TaskRabbit.

“Those workers all need a voice,” he said. “Getting organized is what gets us in the door.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: csaid