Prop 22

Prop 22 passed in California, and Alex Press wrote about why it’s devastating:

On Tuesday, California voters passed Proposition 22, a ballot measure backed by app-based “gig” companies that exempts them from classifying their estimated three hundred thousand workers as employees. Included in Proposition 22’s fine print is a requirement that the measure cannot be modified with less than seven-eighths of the state legislature’s approval, all but ensuring it cannot be overturned.

[...] The proposition’s backers bombarded Californians with misleading mailers, ads, and in-app notifications in the lead-up to the vote. As the Los Angeles Times reports, Yes on Prop 22 spent $628,854 a day: “In any given month, that ends up being more money than an entire election cycle of fundraising in 49 of California’s 53 House races.” In addition to hiring nineteen public relations firms, some of which made their name working for Big Tobacco, the companies bought surrogates, donating $85,000 to a consulting firm run by Alice Huffman, the head of California’s NAACP, effectively allowing them to cynically present themselves as on the side of racial justice, even as the measure will further immiserate drivers, the majority of whom are people of color. This veritable flood of money makes Proposition 22 not only the most expensive ballot measure in California history, but in the history of the United States.

I think if we are ever in need of a fight then a good question to ask is “what does Uber want?”