‘How long can this last?’: California gig workers struggle to pay bills during COVID-19

At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Uber and Lyft driver Erica Mighetto waited, waited and waited for a ding on her app taking her to her next ride. 

She sat in her car in the Bay Area for hours, trying for whatever she could get. When she was starting out more than three years ago, she said she could have earned $1,200 to $1,500 in a weekend working in the Bay Area. Her pay kept dropping, she said. But during the pandemic, her pay plummeted to almost nothing.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/equity-lab/article246455365.html

Organized Labor Fights Uber and Lyft’s Prop. 22

San Francisco Weekly

Union members see the tech-funded initiative as a direct attack on the working class.

Gathered on the grassy steps of Yerba Buena Park and out in front of the St. Regis Hotel, members of the unions Unite Here Local 2 and SEIU Local 87 chanted slogans and spoke to all who would listen on Monday, Sept. 7 — Labor Day.

Janitors, housekeeping staff, food concessionaires, and waiters shouted above the din of honking horns, and a megaphone-touting Shahid Buttar, championing various causes. The workers demanded better pay and benefits, decried descrimination in the workplace, and urged voters to reject Proposition 22.

https://www.sfweekly.com/news/organized-labor-fights-uber-and-lyfts-prop-22/

She was a farmworker. Her grandson is a Lyft driver. A fight for workers’ rights unites them

The Guardian (UK)

When Maria Cardona organized in the 1960s, management hit back with Proposition 22. Now her grandson is tackling a new version of the measure.

More than 40 years ago, Maria Cardona laid her livelihood on the line to demand change in the hot central California fields where she picked grapes and other produce for $1.75 per hour.

Cardona, now 80 years old, was tired of how farm workers like her were treated – the low wages, the backbreaking labor, the days without access to cold water or bathrooms. Most of all, she was tired of the disrespect from her bosses, who she said would regularly shout at workers in the field.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/15/california-proposition-22-uber-lyft

Op-Ed: Will voters side with the continued exploitation of gig workers?

The Hill

For the past half century, employers have increasingly classified their workers as independent contractors. It is said that approximately 8 percent of American workers use independent work as their primary activity, a 22 percent increase since 2001.

More pronounced in trucking, product delivery work like Federal Express, it first emerged in transportation where it is more difficult to monitor worker behavior. But there are other obvious incentives: no social security; no minimum wage or overtime; no unemployment compensation; no sick pay; family leave or workers’ compensation; no reimbursement for travel expenses; registration; insurance; licensing and automobile depreciation; and no protection under anti-discrimination law. A growing precariat, disproportionately Black, brown and immigrants, competing with one another was particularly easy for the new on-demand economy to manipulate.

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/521146-will-voters-side-with-the-continued-exploitation-of-gig-workers

Opinion: When did we start trusting corporations to draft laws?

SF Examiner

Prop. 22 ads do not accurately portray the lives of full-time ride-hail drivers

You can create a lot of influence with $200 million. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my social media feeds and websites are completely inundated with Yes on Proposition 22 ads these days. They show up during commercial breaks. I’ve received text messages. I’ve even seen them on the same webpage as this column.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/when-did-we-start-trusting-corporations-to-draft-laws