Uber customers were urged not to cross a “digital picket line” as British drivers with the app-based service staged their first coordinated national strike. Organisers of the 24-hour strike, which started at lunchtime on Tuesday – the latest part of a push to unionise the so-called gig economy – said many drivers logged off the app and stayed at home, while hundreds also staged rallies outside of the Uber offices in London, Birmingham and Nottingham.