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Last fall, California voters approved a ballot measure exempting workers for companies like Uber and Lyft from a state law requiring drivers to be classified as employees and thus guaranteeing them minimum pay and benefits.
Now, advocates think Massachusetts is about to become the next battleground.
“They’re going to try to do here what they did in California with Prop 22, which is buy themselves the law that they like,” attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan said during a press conference Tuesday organized by the labor-backed Coalition to Protect Workers’ Rights.
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The group is anticipating a $100 million 2022 ballot campaign (primarily backed by Uber and Lyft) to change Massachusetts law to allow ride-hailing drivers and potentially other workers to be classified as “independent contractors.”
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Instead, California s Prop 22 legalized racial subordination, a new research paper argues.
The law worked like 1930s wage codes that paid workers in mostly minority industries less.
Last year, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Uber-owned Postmates spent a record $203 million to convince California voters to pass Proposition 22, a company-authored ballot measure that let them avoid paying for new benefits the state had recently extended to their workers.
The companies said Prop 22, which created a new class of workers subject to different labor laws, would be a boon for workers of color and immigrants, who make up the vast majority of their drivers and delivery people.