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In the face of an imminent deadline, Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. are investing additional weight and accumulating tens of millions of dollars in their fight to continue treating drivers as independent contractors in California.
The relay companies announced Thursday that they would commit $ 60 million to fund a national initiative to create an alternative ranking for drivers including protections for employees and a guaranteed minimum wage. Later, the DoorDash delivery service announced that it would commit an additional $ 30 million.
The money would be more than enough to qualify an initiative and organize a large – scale campaign in the fall of 2020.
The announcement comes a day after Tony West, Uber's chief legal officer, and Lyft's president, John Zimmer, met with governor, Gavin Newsom, and his chief of staff, Ann O & # 39; Leary, to discuss Bill No. 5 of the Assembly. This bill, drafted by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), would codify a Supreme Court decision that makes it more difficult for companies to classify their workers as independent contractors.
While there is little more than two weeks left in the legislative session, high-tech companies are trying to reach an agreement with officials and labor legislators. In an interview, Mr. West said that the companies had almost accepted that AB 5 would be adopted and that the governor would sign it. They are now focusing on a second bill that creates an alternative employment category for workers in the sector.
A vote would be a last resort, said West. He said that he had left the meeting with Newsom in the hope that an agreement could be reached and passed before the end of the legislative session on September 13th.
"A voting initiative is not my first choice," said West. "I do not think it's our first choice because we really think we have something better here. If there is a voting initiative, frankly, you have a number of other voices that go into the process. "
But talks with groups of workers have become bogged down in recent months. The International Union of Service Employees, the largest labor organization in the state, supports a separate driver bill as a way of organizing drivers, thus avoiding an opinion from the Trump administration that drivers are independent contractors. "AB 5 is a good first step," said Bob Schoonover, Chair of SEIU State Council. "But without anything more to this legislation, you could not organize these workers."
Other groups, such as the Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers, strongly oppose any alternative legislation. The California Federation of Labor, which represents 1,200 unions and 2.1 million workers, opposed the proposed voting initiative, saying it shows "the true motivation of many
concert companies billions of dollars. They never cared about their drivers or their workers. The only thing that counts for them is their results and the enrichment of their leaders. "
The executive secretary-treasurer of the Federation, Art Pulaski, promised the trade union movement to defeat "this cynical step" and "to deal with the absurd political spending of the concert companies with a vigorous campaign by the workers."
Gonzalez predicted that a separate bill would fail because the labor movement is divided. "I will fight against any third class of workers," she said, adding that she "had not heard anything from my colleagues regarding the exemption of the worker." economy of the entertainment market ".
A Newsom spokesman said the governor was not expecting to reach an agreement on the status of carpool drivers, but that he was meeting regularly with
technology companies and union leaders hoping to finally find an agreement. In a statement, O'Leary said the governor wanted to guarantee drivers' ability to form unions.
"Any suggestion that this administration does not aggressively defend workers' right to organize and earn higher wages – including carpool drivers – is totally false," O'Leary said. "Since the first day of these talks, the organization of 200,000 drivers – represented by real unions with real collective bargaining rights – was one of the key objectives of these discussions, a goal clearly explained to both parties. The reality is that these drivers do not have a voice under the federal law. The only way for them to get together and form a union is if California intervenes. "
Uber has already hired consultants and companies hope to start collecting signatures for a state-wide voting initiative by this fall at the latest. Other companies in the big economy can participate in the fund.
The tactic of using a voting initiative to leverage has become increasingly common among business, labor and other interest groups since 2014 lawmakers allowed donors to take action. initiatives to withdraw them once they have qualified. The tactic has reached varying degrees of success.
Last year, the soda industry persuaded the state to ban local taxes on sodas for 12 years after funding a polling measure for the 2018 poll, which would have the effect of further preventing cities and counties from raising all taxes. Under the agreement, the industry agreed to withdraw its tax initiative. In contrast, the efforts of national paint companies to push lawmakers to overturn a state court ruling that they are responsible for the lead paint applied in old homes have fizzled despite the threat of initiative. enterprises.
Uber and Lyft leaders said treating workers as employees would severely hamper them in one of their largest US markets. It could also set a precedent for others
States seeking to put in place new worker protections, which would strike a blow to the smaller actors of on-demand delivery, such as
Postmates and DoorDash also.
The debate has already gained national prominence as US Sens presidential candidates. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) And Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) Supported AB 5. On Tuesday, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, also a Democrat, made an appearance in front of the office. Uber to show its solidarity with the caravan of drivers mobilized for the rights of employees.
"If you do a job that makes you a worker and you should be protected as a worker," said Buttigieg. "That means you deserve a minimum wage, which means you deserve protection from sexual harassment and the workplace, which means you deserve protection for overtime. And, yes, that means you deserve a union. "
In the months leading up to the end of the legislative session in California, concert companies have exposed in vague terms their proposal for a hybrid entrepreneur-employee offering workers certain benefits, such as a minimum wage and transferable benefits, in which each company pays a contribution. and is not related to a job.
On Thursday, companies offered additional details. The proposal includes a "net win guarantee" of $ 21 / hour minimum, while drivers have a runner, without limitation the amount of the minimum guarantee that drivers can earn. It contains benefits such as "protection of injured workers" for all California drivers, as well as paid sick leave and paid family leave for drivers who spend 20 hours or more per week on reserved trips. The companies also proposed a form of "sectoral" employee bargaining, which would allow a union to represent all carpool drivers as opposed to sole proprietorship drivers.
"The current system of sole proprietorships concluding business-to-business bargaining agreements is pushing companies to fight against unionization so that they are not at a competitive disadvantage," he said. the group in an ad. "Sectoral bargaining removes this risk by ensuring that negotiated standards apply to all workers, regardless of the company they work with."
West said that Uber would meet with the bargaining group and that drivers would be able to elect its members to negotiate pay and benefits.
Shortly after Wednesday's meeting with the governor, companies sent emails to hundreds of thousands of California Uber and Lyft pilots and millions of runners, asking them to ask their representatives and Newsom to "repair the AB 5 ", as Lyft's message in his email.
This week, a caravan of pilots Uber and Lyft left Los Angeles for the Capitol, through San Francisco, to rally support. The drivers found the companies proposal insufficient, stating that there was no language regarding the guaranteed minimum wage while they were driving. looking for customers.
"He totally ignores whether a driver is connected or not to the app and is waiting for rides," Christian Perrea, a Uber and Lyft driver who spends 60% of his time waiting for a ride, said in a blog. caroussels. "We already have that. If we are in a carousel and we calculate the hourly rate of pay based on when we already have a carousel or on when we are going to pick someone, the pay would be about 21 dollars of l & # 39; hour. "
That said, the proposed minimum is higher than that proposed by other concert companies. Post mates, for example, discussed a state-wide minimum wage wage floor, which is currently $ 12 an hour.
Many motorists also believe that a separate bill creating a category for entertainers would compromise their ability to unionize under federal law.
"Once you've created a new category of workforce, you're backing away, not ahead," said Nicole Moore, Los Angeles-based Los Angeles-based Rideshare Drivers United leader. . "The new brigandier barons of the 21st century … are trying to sell the idea of a third category as offering more flexibility than employment. It's the oldest anti-union trope of the book.
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