Prop 22: don’t give Uber and Lyft a free ride to screw workers

Gig companies have coasted on labeling their employees as “independent contractors” for too long. It is time that Californians vote NO on 22 and force these massive corporations to pay fair wages, provide healthcare and give sick leave to their employees.

Silicon Valley tech companies are notoriously loath to regulation of any kind (just look at Facebook) and pretend to be a unique place of innovation that lies outside the boundaries of normal law.

Companies like Uber and Lyft are the employers of hundreds of thousands of workers, but by labeling them independent contractors and pretending to be “middle-men” rather than employers, they can pay drivers unfairly, not provide health insurance and dispute liability for any occurrence that happens on the job.

These massive companies have spent almost $200 million dollars to get this law passed and have insisted that they will have to leave the state if this proposition is voted down.

Are we to be held hostage by the corporate class? Are we to believe that these greedy capitalists will abandon the 6th largest economy in the world simply because they must treat their employees as employees?

Is a pizza delivery person an employee? Of course, they are. Is a DoorDash worker that delivers your pizza an employee? No, according to DoorDash.

This obvious shell game is entirely to the profit advantage of corporate elites who don’t see any obligations to provide for the workers that create the profits they so enjoy.

Misinformation about Prop 22 is rampant, mostly due to the hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to deceiving Californians.

Does Uber and Lyft provide you a ride out of the goodness of their hearts? No, they do it for profit. Are they fighting for this proposition because it produces better working conditions for their “contractors?” No, they are battling to keep making obscene amounts of money by exploiting people’s need to work.

Gig workers deserve the basic rights afforded to all others in the State of California: health insurance, minimum wage, unemployment insurance and the right to organize a labor union.

Silicon Valley overlords, in their arrogant pursuit of profits, have played the system long enough and must treat their employees as such. Their profits do not take priority over the health and well-being of Californians. Vote NO on Proposition 22.