Uber Bought Itself A Law: CA Prop 22 Dangerous For Drivers, Gig Workers Who Deserve Wages, Benefits
'Uber bought itself a law. Here's why that's dangerous for struggling drivers like me.' By Cherri Murphy, The Guardian, Nov. 12, 2020. The company, along with Lyft and DoorDash, spent more than $200m to deny drivers the wages and benefits we’re entitled to. - Excerpts:
Last week, Uber bought itself a law. Along with Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash and Postmates, app companies spent more than $200m – the most spent on any ballot campaign in US history – to bankroll Proposition 22 in California. With its passage, the law will now exempt drivers like me from basic protections afforded to most other workers in the state.
And in the aftermath of their bought-and-paid-for victory, these companies are promising to roll out this model nationwide, foretelling a grim future for gig workers across the US.
But let’s be absolutely clear: Prop 22 is a dangerous law. Voters in California, inundated with ads promising drivers a “living wage”, flexibility and greater benefits, believed they were ensuring drivers a better future in the middle of a pandemic and recession. But voters were hoodwinked. Drivers are now neither employees, guaranteed rights and benefits such as healthcare, nor true independent contractors, since we can’t set our own rates, choose our own clients, or build wealth on the apps.
"In California, one of the world’s wealthiest economies, I should be able to afford rent and pay my bills as a driver."
- App-based drivers from Uber and Lyft protest in a caravan in front of City Hall in Los Angeles, Oct. 22, 2020.
Instead, Prop 22 promises substandard healthcare, a death sentence to many in the middle of a pandemic. We’re promised a sub-minimum wage in the middle of a recession that an independent study showed would be as low as $5.64 an hour – not the eventual $15 state minimum. We’re given no family leave, no paid sick days and no access to state unemployment compensation. Most importantly, while we’re already prevented from unionizing under federal law, the measure also makes it nearly impossible for California to pass laws protecting drivers who organize collectively, a fundamental right that companies undermine to silence worker power.
..And when the campaign got under way, these companies were unconscionable. Uber forced drivers to click through in-app messages warning them that they would lose their jobs if Prop 22 failed – for which they were sued. It sent notifications to riders warning of longer wait times and higher prices.. They even spent part of their war chest convincing voters that it was racist to oppose the measure, a particular affront when 78% of drivers in San Francisco are people of color and 56% are immigrants.
Lyft ran ads quoting Maya Angelou’s “Lift up your eyes” poem, and Uber bought billboards stating “If you tolerate racism, delete Uber” to capitalize on the Black Lives Matter movement...
More, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/12/uber-prop-22-law-drivers-ab5-gig-workers
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- 'Can American Labor Survive Prop 22?' The California ballot measure could be the most radical undoing of labor legislation since Taft-Hartley. The Nation, Nov. 10, 2020. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/prop-22-labor/
..Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Postmates, and Instacart convinced nearly 60 percent of Californian voters to support Proposition 22, which excludes “gig workers” from basic labor protections. The companies overwhelmed the opposition and muddled the truth with a record-breaking $200 million campaign, pelting voters with misleading ads that framed the proposal as a social justice cause. It marks a dangerous new phase in big tech’s onslaught against workers, and a pivotal test of whether labor can push back...
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