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Speaker 1: It's nine pm on a Saturday night in Highland Park,

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Speaker 1: a neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles. It's the summertime and

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Speaker 1: the nearby bars are buzzing with people. I'm at a

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Speaker 1: gas station of York Boulevard, one of the busiest streets

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Speaker 1: in the area.

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Speaker 2: If I want to like put like a full tank,

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Speaker 2: it will be probably like close to eighty dollars.

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Speaker 1: I'm here with Alvaro volainis a driver with the right

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Speaker 1: hailing company Lift, and he's about to start his shift.

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Speaker 1: Saturdays are the busiest nights of the week for right

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Speaker 1: hailing drivers, more clients and less traffic on the road.

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Speaker 1: It costs Alvado about eighty dollars to fill up the

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Speaker 1: tank of his black suv, and sometimes that's not enough

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Speaker 1: to make it through the night. This money comes out

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Speaker 1: of his own pocket because Uber and Lyft drivers have

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Speaker 1: to pay for all of their expenses such as gas,

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Speaker 1: car maintenance, and car insurance.

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Speaker 3: So I got a call it, so I gotta drive

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Speaker 3: all the way to South Pasadena.

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Speaker 1: Albardo gets his first call of the night. For privacy reasons,

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Speaker 1: we can't record inside Albardo's car while he's driving clients around,

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Speaker 1: so we asked him to send us voice memos throughout

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Speaker 1: the evening. Okay, al, I'm gonna let you go. I

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Speaker 1: wish you the best of nights. I hope you make

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Speaker 1: a lot of money.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I hope so.

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Speaker 3: So my first ride took me to Alhambra. It was

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Speaker 3: really slow there. I waited like forty minutes and I

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Speaker 3: didn't get no call, so I decided to drive to

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Speaker 3: downtown La.

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Speaker 1: Alvardo compares driving for Uber and Lyft to gambling at

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Speaker 1: a casino. Drivers can't manage passenger demand, and when Alvado

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Speaker 1: accepts a ride with Lyft, he cannot see where the

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Speaker 1: passenger is going or how much money he will make

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Speaker 1: from the ride.

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Speaker 3: Right now, I'm in downtown a La, waiting for pretty

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Speaker 3: much for the right call because I'm getting a lot

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Speaker 3: of calls, but I have to drive eighteen minutes and

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Speaker 3: they're only like three minutes right, So those are not proferable.

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Speaker 1: Drivers only get paid for the time between accepting a

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Speaker 1: request and completing it, so Alvardo has to do the math.

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Speaker 1: He's not getting paid for all of the burnt gas

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Speaker 1: and time he's driving on the streets between calls. If

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Speaker 1: it's not diligent about it. Alvado could actually lose money

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Speaker 1: on a drive.

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Speaker 3: I just completed my second right off the night, and

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Speaker 3: he pays me twenty dollars, but I almost got into

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Speaker 3: an accident.

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Speaker 1: If Alvardo gets into an accident, some of the costs

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Speaker 1: could fall on him. Uber and Lyft don't classify drivers

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Speaker 1: as employees, so they have to cover their own health

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Speaker 1: care and car insurance. App based drivers also use their

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Speaker 1: own cars for the job. After where out two preasess,

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Speaker 1: Alvado decided to invest sixty thousand dollars in an suv

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Speaker 1: so that he could drive for Lift Lucks, the company's

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Speaker 1: hire and service, But he says that not every driver

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Speaker 1: can make this kind of investment.

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Speaker 3: It's almost one am in the morning and I'm kind

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Speaker 3: of sleepy, so I will go to McDonald get myself

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Speaker 3: like a cheeseburger and a large coffee that will keep

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Speaker 3: me away during the bar closing time, which is like

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Speaker 3: two AM, and it gets really busy, so I need

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Speaker 3: to be awake.

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Speaker 1: Even on a busy Saturday night. Even with his fancy car,

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Speaker 1: Alvado says is only making a small fraction of what

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Speaker 1: he used to make when he first started driving for

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Speaker 1: the company back in twenty twelve. In that same period

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Speaker 1: of time, Uber and Lyft have ballooned into companies that

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Speaker 1: are valued at billions of dollars.

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Speaker 3: It's four in the morning and I'm getting well we

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Speaker 3: it is that means laziness, And I didn't get no

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Speaker 3: more calls. I was pretty much online six hours and

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Speaker 3: thirty five minutes and I make one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 3: one dollars with four rice.

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Speaker 2: And I mean it was like a kind of like

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Speaker 2: a bad naive for me.

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Speaker 4: From Futuro Media, it's let you know Usay by Maria

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Speaker 4: Nojosa Today inside the labor battle against big tech in

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Speaker 4: California that could change the future of work. When was

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Speaker 4: the last time you used an app based service? As consumers,

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Speaker 4: we often take these apps for granted, kind of a

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Speaker 4: part of our everyday lives, even more so during the

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Speaker 4: COVID nineteen pandemic, when a lot of these so called

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Speaker 4: gig workers became essential. They're the people green food and

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Speaker 4: packages to our doors, or sitting in the driver's seat

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Speaker 4: when we order car rides to avoid public transportation. It

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Speaker 4: might seem longer, but it hasn't even been fifteen years

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Speaker 4: since app based companies like Uber and Lyft were founded,

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Speaker 4: but in the time that they've been around, they've changed

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Speaker 4: the face of several industries and of labor as a whole.

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Speaker 4: Uber and Lyft were some of the first companies to

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Speaker 4: institute gigwork as their primary business model. This means that

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Speaker 4: the drivers are not employees or rather independent contractors, so

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Speaker 4: workers are not afforded basic rights like a minimum wage,

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Speaker 4: overtime pay, sick or maternal leave, health insurance, or compensation

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Speaker 4: in case of injured.

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Speaker 5: Every day when I go out, I drive in fear

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Speaker 5: that somebody's going to hit me, the I'm going to

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Speaker 5: get deactivated, and I'm not going to be able to

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Speaker 5: feed my children this week.

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Speaker 4: And the drivers are mostly immigrants and people of color.

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Speaker 4: According to a twenty twenty one report from Lyft, seventy

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Speaker 4: six percent of California drivers identify as people of color

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Speaker 4: and forty four percent are Latino or Latina. California has

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Speaker 4: been ground zero for cementing the gigwork business model into

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Speaker 4: law a year ago. This month, the state passed Proposition

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Speaker 4: twenty two to allow app based companies like Uber and

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Speaker 4: Lyft to classify their drivers as contractors instead of as employees.

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Speaker 4: The law also prevents workers from unionizing. But California drivers

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Speaker 4: and other gig workers affected by Prop twenty two, many

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Speaker 4: of whom rely on app based companies as their main

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Speaker 4: source of income, say this labor model is unsustainable, and

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Speaker 4: many of them, like Alvaro Boliniz, are fighting back. The

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Speaker 4: battle is still far from over. Prop twenty two was

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Speaker 4: recently ruled unconstitutional by a California judge, while in other

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Speaker 4: states there have been attempts of introducing similar measures. Today,

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Speaker 4: we're going to follow a group of drivers who are

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Speaker 4: mobilizing across California and using their own technology to take

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Speaker 4: on big tech. Their fight is not only about their

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Speaker 4: own labor protections as drivers, but about what it means

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Speaker 4: to be an employee in this country.

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Speaker 2: Today.

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Speaker 4: Producers Batrisias Ubaran and Julia Rocha will be reporting this

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Speaker 4: story together. We're going to start with Patricia. We heard

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Speaker 4: at the beginning of this episode.

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Speaker 1: Albaro Blinis has a love hate relationship with La.

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Speaker 3: La is a city that requires you to be like

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Speaker 3: hastling every day.

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Speaker 1: Albado came to Los Angeles from El Salvador in two thousand,

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Speaker 1: when he was fifteen years old, looking for better access

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Speaker 1: to education and opportunity. He remembers that although he had

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Speaker 1: only gone to primary school for four years in his

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Speaker 1: home country, his dad sent him straight to high school

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Speaker 1: when he got to the.

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Speaker 3: US, and I would sit down on my table and

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Speaker 3: now I start crying because I didn't know what the

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Speaker 3: home work was about it because I didn't know the language.

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Speaker 1: But Alberto cut up fast. English even became his favorite subject.

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Speaker 1: After school, Alberta worked the night shift offloading merchandise at

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Speaker 1: a warehouse. He would work from eight pm until four

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Speaker 1: in the morning, sometimes coming home to sleep for a

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Speaker 1: few hours before heading to school in the morning. His

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Speaker 1: work ethic was a mirror image of his dad's, who

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Speaker 1: worked in construction, but Alberto saw that was a tough

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Speaker 1: path to follow.

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Speaker 3: You see how much he works, and he barely have enough,

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Speaker 3: you know, to feed you and to pay the rent.

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Speaker 3: If I don't sacrifice myself, I'm not going to end

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Speaker 3: up exactly like him.

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Speaker 1: Albado went on to work at a car dealership after

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Speaker 1: high school. He started by working in maintenance, cleaning bathrooms, sweeping,

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Speaker 1: but he managed to work his way up the ladder,

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Speaker 1: becoming a supervisor in a few years. Although Alberto took

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Speaker 1: pride in his work, his job had one big downside.

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Speaker 1: It was a two hour, sometimes three hour commute from

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Speaker 1: his house. After ten years working at the dealership, he

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Speaker 1: noticed something unusual on the way to work.

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Speaker 3: And then I turn around and I see this car

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Speaker 3: with the big pink mustache.

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Speaker 1: A big fuzzy pink mustache on the front bumper of

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Speaker 1: a car. He soon found out that they were a

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Speaker 1: marketing tool for a brand new company called Lift.

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Speaker 3: I got home and I googled it, and then he

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Speaker 3: says like, live, You're gonna make money by driving your

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Speaker 3: own car. And I'm like, I'm already driving three hours,

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Speaker 3: you know, and I'm making no money.

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Speaker 2: I'm actually wasting money, you know.

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Speaker 1: So then Alberto thought, why not. It was easy enough

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Speaker 1: to sign up to drive or lift, and then easy

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Speaker 1: enough to learn how the job worked. You download the app,

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Speaker 1: hop in the car, and boom, you're making money. Alberto

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Speaker 1: became a lift driver in twenty twelve. At this point,

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Speaker 1: right hailing companies were just starting out. Unemployment numbers were

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Speaker 1: still high after the Great Recession, and there was a

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Speaker 1: general optimism in the air that technology could forge the

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Speaker 1: way to economic recovery.

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Speaker 5: It was a time when people were filled with hope

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Speaker 5: about the promise of our phones to fix our problems.

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Speaker 1: That's Vienna Dubal, a law professor at UC Hastings in

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Speaker 1: California who focuses on the intersection of law, technology and

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Speaker 1: precarious work. Verna was writing her dissertation on taxi worker

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Speaker 1: organizing efforts when Uber and lyft were just starting out

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Speaker 1: in twenty twelve and twenty thirteen.

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Speaker 5: And I sort of at the time wrote it off

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Speaker 5: because I thought it was so silly, you know, who

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Speaker 5: was going to get into a taxi that wasn't regulated,

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Speaker 5: Like who was going to get into someone else's car?

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Speaker 5: That just seemed like a phenomenon that couldn't possibly spread.

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Speaker 5: And I was really wrong about that.

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Speaker 1: The apps took cough fast within three years of its launch,

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Speaker 1: uber x Uber's most popular service, which nearly half a

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Speaker 1: million active drivers in one hundred and fifty cities in

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Speaker 1: the United States. At the beginning, the business model seemed

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Speaker 1: to be benefiting both drivers and users. Alvardo was making

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Speaker 1: good money driving his first prius, picking up passengers around

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Speaker 1: the city at events, nightclubs, and festivals. He says he

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Speaker 1: used to make up to two thousand dollars a week,

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Speaker 1: and that he got to keep eighty percent of the profits,

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Speaker 1: while Lift took a twenty percent and cut. But experts

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Speaker 1: like Vina had doubts about the shiny new company. She

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Speaker 1: had been studying the taxi industry for years and knew

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Speaker 1: how precarious they had gotten for workers over the past

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Speaker 1: few decades after they went from being employees with unionized

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Speaker 1: wages and benefits to independent contractors in the nineteen seventies.

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Speaker 1: She worried that Uber and Lyft's model would burden workers

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Speaker 1: even more.

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Speaker 5: Uber and Lyft drivers were paying for their own cars,

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Speaker 5: they were paying for their own gas, they were paying

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Speaker 5: for their own upkeep. I realized that this was one

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Speaker 5: step even more exploitaive than the taxi industry.

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Speaker 1: She explains that even though taxiicab drivers became contractors, they

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Speaker 1: didn't have to use their own cars to work, and

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Speaker 1: taxi companies would cover the maintenance. Uber and Lyft changed that,

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Speaker 1: adding a new dimension to what an independent contractor could be.

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Speaker 5: There was no regulation over prices, no regulation over the

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Speaker 5: number of cars in the street that were competing with

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Speaker 5: one another. It just was so clearly a recipe for exploitation.

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Speaker 1: But concerns from Vienna and other industry experts didn't stop

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Speaker 1: these companies from raising millions of dollars in funding or

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Speaker 1: growing their user bases. In their first few years of business,

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Speaker 1: Uber and Lyft were running promotions like giving out free

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Speaker 1: rides for new customers. Alvao help recruit customers by handing

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Speaker 1: out free right coupons to his passengers.

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Speaker 3: I pretty much helped an alvertise, you know their company,

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Speaker 3: leave what they did, They will give me pre business

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Speaker 3: card we might call, so that call was good for

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Speaker 3: twenty dollars free ride for customers.

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Speaker 1: At the same time, Uber and Lyft were setting their

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Speaker 1: sights on the state legislature. When they first hit the

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Speaker 1: streets of California, they weren't following many of the existing

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Speaker 1: regulations for the taxi industry.

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Speaker 5: Uber and Lyft when they first started operating in San

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Speaker 5: Francisco in two thousand two, well, they were operating illegally.

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Speaker 5: They didn't have evidence of appropriate insurance for drivers or passengers.

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Speaker 5: They were arguably operating as taxis, but without the regulations

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Speaker 5: of taxis. So this California Public Utilities Commission actually stepped

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Speaker 5: in and issued a cease and desist order.

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Speaker 1: Vienna refers to a notice that was issued in November

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Speaker 1: of twenty twelve. The Commission levied twenty thousand dollars fines

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Speaker 1: on the startup companies, but their platforms continued to operate

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Speaker 1: while they were in conversations with a commission. That same year,

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Speaker 1: Uber had received around forty four million dollars from investors

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Speaker 1: and was expanding globally.

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Speaker 5: There was a massive outcry from the tech community, and

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Speaker 5: later the cease and desist order and the citations were

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Speaker 5: inexplicably lifted.

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Speaker 1: About a month after issuing the cease and desist order,

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Speaker 1: in January of twenty thirteen, the Commission dropped the fines.

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Speaker 1: The state signed an agreement with Uber and Lyft that

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Speaker 1: authorized them to operate throughout California as long as they

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Speaker 1: follow some safety requirements, like performing background checks on drivers

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Speaker 1: and having continued proof of insurance. Vena says both companies

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Speaker 1: hire lobbyists and US government connections to challenge the cease

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Speaker 1: and desist order and reach this new agreement. She says

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Speaker 1: there was fear in state government that passing quote unquote

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Speaker 1: anti tech legislation would coust the state jobs and opportunities.

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Speaker 2: There was so much.

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Speaker 5: Talk about innovation and technology in a real sense that

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Speaker 5: if they were to do anything more than lightly regulate

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Speaker 5: these companies, that they would be pushing back against innovation.

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Speaker 1: Then, in September of that same year, California became the

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Speaker 1: first state in the US to come up with new

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Speaker 1: regulations for these app based right hailing services. The California

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Speaker 1: Public Utilities Commission created an entirely new business category for them.

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Speaker 5: They said, but these were transportation network companies. They created

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Speaker 5: the sort of fiction of a new category of work

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Speaker 5: based on the idea that you summoned the cars with

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Speaker 5: an app, and they outsourced safety requirements to the companies,

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Speaker 5: leaving them virtually to regulate themselves.

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Speaker 1: Right hailing companies were able to keep drivers working as

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Speaker 1: independent contractors, the spy drivers not being able to set

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Speaker 1: their own wages, which contractors are usually supposed to be

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Speaker 1: able to.

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Speaker 6: Do.

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Speaker 1: Instead, these companies secret ever changing algorithms determine driver's earnings.

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Speaker 1: According to Venus Research, in just three years following the

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Speaker 1: California Public Utilities Commission's decision, similar legislation cropped up in

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Speaker 1: twenty states across the country, making it harder for local

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Speaker 1: governments to regulate these companies and for workers to advocate

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Speaker 1: for better working conditions. After working as a lift driver

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Speaker 1: for just six months, Alvardo decided to quit his job

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Speaker 1: at the car dealership.

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Speaker 3: I was making more money driving for Live than working

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Speaker 3: at the dealer, so I was like, why not just

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Speaker 3: do this full time?

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Speaker 1: Alvado was working twelve hour days, sometimes making between five

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Speaker 1: hundred to six hundred dollars a day. In just four years,

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Speaker 1: Alvado had saved one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He

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Speaker 1: invested the money and started his own car wash business.

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Speaker 3: When I opened up the car watch, I feel proud

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Speaker 3: of myself. I'm like, Okay, finally am I going to

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Speaker 3: have my own business.

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Speaker 1: Although Albado's car wash was going well, he continued driving

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Speaker 1: on the weekends to cover his car expenses, But around

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Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, he noticed that things started to change.

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Speaker 3: When I started with Live, I was getting paid one

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Speaker 3: dollar and sixty five cents poor mile, and.

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Speaker 2: Then they lowered it to one dollar.

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Speaker 3: And thirty five cents, and then they lowered it to

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Speaker 3: one dollar, and then they lower it to eighty cents.

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Speaker 1: Alvados says that he went from earning five hundred dollars

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Speaker 1: after twelve hours of work back in twenty twelve to

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty dollars four years later. He noticed

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Speaker 1: that around that time a lot more drivers started joining

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Speaker 1: the apps. Alberto had to deal with the same opkeep

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Speaker 1: leads and insurance expenses, now with fewer wages. And it

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Speaker 1: was also around that time that right prices for customers

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Speaker 1: went up as Uber started introducing as searge pricing algorithm.

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Speaker 1: Uber and Lyft began to take a larger commission for

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Speaker 1: the driver's pay. Previously, it had been set at twenty percent,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes it even reached zero to attract more drivers.

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Speaker 1: But the new policy hit part time drivers the hardest

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Speaker 1: because the companies would take more money from people who

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Speaker 1: completed less than twenty rides in a week. And Alberto

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Speaker 1: says he noticed another change. The app no longer let

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Speaker 1: him identify by other drivers. He says that when he

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Speaker 1: started with Lyft, drivers could see each other's first name

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Speaker 1: and location on the app itself, but as the years

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Speaker 1: went on, he says, the company began to see this

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Speaker 1: function as a threat. Alberta said that if drivers could communicate,

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Speaker 1: they would start talking about the wage cuts and start

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Speaker 1: banding together. We asked Lyft about this and they said

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Speaker 1: that in the early days of the company, drivers could

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Speaker 1: see each other's cars on the platform alongside drivers first

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Speaker 1: names too, so this made it easier for them to

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Speaker 1: meet up spontaneously, but Lift discontinued that feature by twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 1: The company didn't publicly explain why.

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Speaker 3: So I'm like, why not create a Facebook group? But everybody, can,

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Speaker 3: you know, stay together?

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Speaker 1: Alberta says he's never been a shy person. He'd always

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Speaker 1: talk to other drivers waiting for rides in parking lots

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Speaker 1: and add them on Facebook.

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Speaker 2: So I give them the link join my group and

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Speaker 2: in buy other friends.

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Speaker 1: At first, the group was like a forum where drivers

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Speaker 1: could share tips and ask questions. If a driver knew

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Speaker 1: of an event in the city where people would need rights,

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Speaker 1: they could share it in the group. Drivers could ask

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Speaker 1: questions like how do I cancel a ride or how

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Speaker 1: do I call the passenger?

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Speaker 3: When it's funny because I opened up the Facebook group

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Speaker 3: and I started to do live videos telling drivers, Hey, listen,

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Speaker 3: we've got to get together. We gotta fight with this

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Speaker 3: company because they keep lowering their rate.

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Speaker 1: As fairs started going down, the group became a space

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Speaker 1: where drivers could talk about what they were going through.

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Speaker 2: All school drivers like me.

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Speaker 3: We put the time and money and effort to make

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Speaker 3: Uber and Leave who they are right now.

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Speaker 2: Without us Uber and Left, who wouldn't be there.

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Speaker 1: Albody remembers doing video calls with fellow drivers and.

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Speaker 3: You can hear on their boys that they're really mad drivers,

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Speaker 3: that they spend so much money that they bought a

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Speaker 3: brand new car just to drive for Lyft and Nuber

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Speaker 3: and they're not making no money. I mean, that makes

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Speaker 3: you feel sad, but at the same time, it's like, Okay,

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Speaker 3: we need more people like this person, you know, who

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Speaker 3: are like super passionate, you know, picking up and about

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Speaker 3: fighting against this.

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Speaker 4: Company coming up on Latin USA. While Albaro and other

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Speaker 4: ride haling drivers see their wages slashed across the country,

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Speaker 4: Uber and Lyft continue to grow, changing transportation habits across

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Speaker 4: the country, and in order to fight for better working conditions,

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Speaker 4: drivers create an app of their own. Stay with us,

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Speaker 4: not us, Hey, we're back. Before the break, we met

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Speaker 4: Alberto Bolinez, who has been driving for the Right Hail

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Speaker 4: company lived since twenty twelve in Los Angeles. Money was

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Speaker 4: good and he turned it into a full time job.

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Speaker 4: But by twenty fifteen, Albaro and drivers across the nation

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Speaker 4: began to see their wages slashed, so they started to

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Speaker 4: organize and mobilize behind new pro worker legislation. Producer Juetro

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Speaker 4: picks up the story from here.

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Speaker 7: By twenty fifteen, Uber and Lyft had changed transportation across

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Speaker 7: the country. That year, Uber doubled the number of active

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Speaker 7: drivers on its platform in the US to over three

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Speaker 7: hundred thousand, and it made one point seven billion dollars

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Speaker 7: in revenue. The company also expanded their business to major

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Speaker 7: cities in France, Canada, the UK, Mexico, several African countries, India,

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Speaker 7: and China. Lyft, though smaller and only operating in the US,

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Speaker 7: grew fivefold in rides in revenue from twenty fourteen to

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Speaker 7: twenty fifteen. That year, the company was valued at five

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Speaker 7: point five billion dollars and on track to make one

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Speaker 7: billion dollars in gross revenue. Beyond even that, Uber and

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Speaker 7: Lyft's success in deploying labor through an app had changed

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Speaker 7: the face of several industries.

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Speaker 5: Was the Uber of everything emerging? Everyone in Silicon Valley

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Speaker 5: wanted to be the next Uber for their sectors. So

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Speaker 5: there were companies that were the Uber of housekeeping, the

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Speaker 5: Uber of babysitting, the Uber of warehouse work.

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Speaker 7: Vina, the law professor we heard from earlier, says, all

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Speaker 7: of these companies were following in the footsteps of the

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Speaker 7: rideshare business model.

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Speaker 5: And it was the same phenomenon. High wages at the beginning,

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Speaker 5: and then we just were lowered low prices for consumers

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Speaker 5: at the beginning, and then hidden fees started to appear

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Speaker 5: and prices went up.

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Speaker 7: Although Alvaro and many lift drivers were surprised when fair

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Speaker 7: started to go down. Ivan Barro, a software developer from

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Speaker 7: southern California who worked with startups in the tech industry,

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Speaker 7: saw this coming and he wanted to do something about it.

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Speaker 8: I thought, if there's a way for Uber to create

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Speaker 8: software that organize as drivers in such a way that

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Speaker 8: it makes a profit for the company, then I feel

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Speaker 8: like I could imagine a way that we could write

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Speaker 8: some sort of software that allows us to organize drivers

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Speaker 8: to help them fight for fair pay and voice on

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Speaker 8: the job.

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Speaker 7: From the beginning, I haven't thought that Uber and Lyft's

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Speaker 7: business model was unsustainable.

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Speaker 8: I think that being from the startup world. I kind

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Speaker 8: of understood that the investment capital is flooding into this

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Speaker 8: industry right now, but all of these investors are looking

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Speaker 8: for an enormous return on it. You know, if a

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Speaker 8: fund gives one hundred million dollars to Uber, they're expecting

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Speaker 8: to get a billion dollars back. And that can't happen

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Speaker 8: in an industry that's so dependent on labor unless that

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Speaker 8: labor is terribly exploited.

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Speaker 7: Remember those free ride lift cards that Alvaro was handing

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Speaker 7: out when he was still making good money and saving

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Speaker 7: for his car wash. Ivan explains that all of that

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Speaker 7: money was actually coming from venture capital. In the case

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Speaker 7: of Uber and Lyft, all of those cheap rides and

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Speaker 7: decent wages were being subsidized by investors. But that business

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Speaker 7: model wasn't meant to last. Once drivers became dependent on

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Speaker 7: the work and consumers became dependent on this new form

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Speaker 7: of transportation, investors wanted their money back.

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Speaker 8: Knowing kind of how venture capital works, I figured that

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Speaker 8: there was going to be a time in the next

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Speaker 8: few years where not just venture capitalists, but the management

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Speaker 8: of the company youselfware going to start turning the screws

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Speaker 8: and squeezing every penny that they could out of the drivers.

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Speaker 7: Even as ride prices went up for customers, this didn't

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Speaker 7: mean drivers were getting more pay in return. The payment

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Speaker 7: structure with these apps varies, and it's determined by multiple

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Speaker 7: factors like trip duration, distance, and potential surge pricing based

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Speaker 7: on demand. On top of that, drivers only learn how

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Speaker 7: much they're getting paid once the ride is completed. Ivan

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Speaker 7: says from the moment he took his first Uber ride,

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Speaker 7: he was talking to drivers about their conditions on the job.

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Speaker 7: Ivan's been passionate about labor and politics from a young age.

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Speaker 7: His father, a Cuban immigrant, was active in a union,

442
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 7: and Ivan saw the benefits of organizing firsthand.

443
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:21,920
Speaker 8: This point, I was still playing around with this idea

444
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 8: of what would it look like to make an app

445
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:28,120
Speaker 8: to allow drivers to self organize strikes. And maybe three

446
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 8: to four months of playing around with that idea, just

447
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 8: thinking about it every day, designing screens for it.

448
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 7: I haven't started going online on Uber and Lyft forums,

449
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,119
Speaker 7: reaching out to drivers who might be interested in organizing,

450
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:43,240
Speaker 7: but things weren't really picking up.

451
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:47,440
Speaker 8: At a certain point, I came to the decision that

452
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 8: an app in general is not what drivers needed. Drivers

453
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 8: needed an organization.

454
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 7: Ivan knew that all worker protections in the US had

455
00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:00,399
Speaker 7: been hard fought and were pretty much nonexistent before the

456
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 7: twentieth century.

457
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:07,640
Speaker 8: Before the nineteen thirties, workers had no protections, no unemployment insurance,

458
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,760
Speaker 8: no minimum wage protections for the most part, no workers'

459
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,800
Speaker 8: compensation in case they got injured on the job. All

460
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:18,920
Speaker 8: of those rights fought for by workers organizing and taking collective.

461
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 9: Action, and this collective action led to legislation. Here's Vena again.

462
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:28,360
Speaker 5: In the nineteen thirties, the US Congress passed what we

463
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:31,720
Speaker 5: call the New Deal, and there were a set of

464
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 5: laws passed over a number of years that created rights

465
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 5: for workers.

466
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 6: We can never ensure one hundred percent of the population

467
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:45,120
Speaker 6: against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life,

468
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 6: but we have tried to primate law which will give

469
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 6: some measure of protection to the average citizen and to

470
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 6: his family.

471
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 5: They created the minimum wage, over time, social security, on

472
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 5: employment insurance, workers compensation, all these rights that we sort

473
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 5: of take for granted that workers have in America.

474
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 9: Vena says these laws drew some backlash.

475
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,800
Speaker 5: Around nineteen forty eight, when there was a Republican backlash

476
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 5: to the New Deal laws. The Congress did something. Then,

477
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,640
Speaker 5: it was a very business friendly congress, they said. The

478
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 5: independent contractors were carved out of all of these protections.

479
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 7: Independent contractors became more popular in the service and agriculture industries.

480
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 7: Vena says that the question of which workers are excluded

481
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 7: from these protections has always fallen along racial lines, So.

482
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,720
Speaker 5: At the time, most African American workers were in agriculture

483
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 5: or in domestic work. Agricultural and domestic work soon became

484
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 5: work of Latinos and other immigrant communities, but they were

485
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 5: expressly carved out of all of those laws.

486
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 7: Whereas workers in twentieth century could speak to each other

487
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 7: and begin to organize at their place of work, uber

488
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:10,080
Speaker 7: and lyft drivers often didn't know each other at all,

489
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 7: but as wages dropped, drivers began to find ways to communicate.

490
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 7: One of the drivers who had started leading efforts to

491
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 7: organize was fifty seven year old Haitian American uber driver

492
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 7: Asterphanie Saint Just. She had just moved to Los Angeles

493
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 7: in twenty thirteen to take care of her mother. A

494
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 7: year and a half later, Asterphani's mother passed.

495
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 10: Away and then I was like, what do I do now,

496
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 10: and someone had suggested ubering.

497
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 7: Asterphanie began driving in June of twenty fifteen, and at

498
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 7: first she liked the job.

499
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 10: I like people, not so much driving. You know, it

500
00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 10: was a decent job. It was kind of like the

501
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 10: modern waiting on tables.

502
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 7: Even though Asterphanie knew that drivers couldn't negotiate with Uber

503
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,120
Speaker 7: and Lyft, understood that drivers had power.

504
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 10: Their whole business model is based on us supplying the

505
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 10: cars and the drivers, and our gas and our insurance.

506
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 10: We are the machine that without us, it doesn't exist.

507
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 7: Asterphani wasn't a professional organizer. She had been a fashion

508
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 7: designer and a real estate broker before she began driving,

509
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 7: but as.

510
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 9: She said, she liked people.

511
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 7: She says her organizing efforts started to take off in

512
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 7: twenty seventeen when La International Airport began allowing Uber and

513
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 7: Lyft drivers to pick up and drop off travelers in

514
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 7: the same trip. Drivers piled into the airport parking lots

515
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 7: waiting for their phones to light up, and while they waited,

516
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:49,959
Speaker 7: drivers started talking to one another.

517
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 10: The airport became the watering hole of rideshare. We were

518
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:57,640
Speaker 10: able to compare notes on what was going on and

519
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 10: what we realized then is that, oh, did you notice

520
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 10: that the customers are paying one thing and we're getting another.

521
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,720
Speaker 10: We called Uber and Lyft respectively because they were both

522
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 10: doing the same thing, and we asked them, you're only

523
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 10: supposed to be taking twenty percent, right, and they said, well,

524
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:20,480
Speaker 10: we change the terms of the contract. We had no

525
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 10: choice because we don't have a lawyer in our car.

526
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 10: Nobody wants to acknowledge, including the companies, and the politicians

527
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:32,760
Speaker 10: don't want to acknowledge that we have no say in

528
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 10: the contract.

529
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 7: Asterphani was frustrated that she had no way of negotiating

530
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 7: the terms of the contract that appeared on the app,

531
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 7: and with every new contract, she saw her pay get

532
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 7: smaller and smaller. In twenty seventeen, Asterphani and the driver

533
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 7: she had met at the airport parking lot decided to

534
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 7: organize a rally.

535
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 5: An aggressive response from angry drivers who say they're protesting

536
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 5: Uber and Lift over low wages. All we wanted is

537
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:08,000
Speaker 5: an increase in our wages so that we can make

538
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 5: a decent movie.

539
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 7: And it wasn't just about the wages going down. In

540
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 7: twenty seventeen, Uber also set out a new rule that

541
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 7: required drivers to give up their right to sue the

542
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 7: company in court.

543
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 10: With a little bit of press we got Ivan a developer.

544
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 10: He noticed us, so then he met with us and said, well,

545
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 10: you know, I have this app that will make it

546
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 10: easier to organize for people who don't ordinarily know each other.

547
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:40,240
Speaker 2: He said, would you like me to help.

548
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 7: Even though they had gathered a committed group of drivers

549
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 7: who came to the airport parking lots, organizers wanted to

550
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:49,920
Speaker 7: get the attention of the thousands of drivers in Los

551
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 7: Angeles who didn't come to the airport. Ivan began designing

552
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 7: an app that would allow them to do what the

553
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,960
Speaker 7: Lift and Uber apps didn't allow drivers to do, communicate

554
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,000
Speaker 7: with each other. He named the app Solidarity.

555
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 10: From my first protest, We've probably had about two hundred

556
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 10: members within six months with the help of ivand we

557
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 10: grew to fifteen hundred.

558
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 7: They also came up with a name for their group,

559
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:23,200
Speaker 7: Ride Share Drivers United, or for short RDU. A Loto

560
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 7: still remembers when he got a message to sign up

561
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,640
Speaker 7: with RDU on the Solidarity app. He filled out the

562
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:31,799
Speaker 7: form and was connected to another driver organizer and.

563
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:33,880
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, this is that kind of stage and

564
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,839
Speaker 3: that I was looking forward to join because we all drivers.

565
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,400
Speaker 7: Alato says one of the first things that drew him

566
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 7: into the group was how everything was organized through the app,

567
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 7: establishing a kind of buddy system.

568
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 3: You can send text message through here, you can call them.

569
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:51,399
Speaker 3: You go to the link, you sign up, and then

570
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 3: you say, okay, I want to receive a call this

571
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 3: day at this time, and then I'm not going to

572
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 3: explain you who we are, what you can do to participate.

573
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 3: And this app is really helpful because it helped us

574
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:03,799
Speaker 3: to communicate each other.

575
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:07,280
Speaker 7: Adabato went to his first RDU meeting in the spring

576
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,720
Speaker 7: of twenty nineteen. Esterphani was there and so was Ivan.

577
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,960
Speaker 7: They were planning a big strike at La International Airport.

578
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:22,799
Speaker 8: We started to sort of strategize when would it make

579
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 8: sense to do this, and we knew that Uber's IPO

580
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:27,120
Speaker 8: was coming up.

581
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:31,880
Speaker 7: An IPO, or initial public offering, is basically the first

582
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 7: time a private company makes its shares available to the

583
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:38,439
Speaker 7: public for purchase. It's kind of a big deal.

584
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 8: You know, that's important because that's kind of the moment

585
00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:44,799
Speaker 8: when all the early investors cash out. Before that the

586
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 8: money that they have and shares is all theoretical. Once

587
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 8: IPO happens, they can sell those shares. That's when you know,

588
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:52,760
Speaker 8: the billions become real.

589
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:56,240
Speaker 7: This would be an important moment not only for Uber,

590
00:35:56,719 --> 00:36:00,440
Speaker 7: but for Wall Street and global finance in general. Uber

591
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:03,719
Speaker 7: was the biggest company within a whole generation of tech

592
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:07,799
Speaker 7: startups that relied on gig workers like door Dash and Instacart.

593
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 7: Uber's IPO was on the driver's radar, and they decided

594
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:14,880
Speaker 7: it would be a perfect moment to strike if.

595
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:18,840
Speaker 8: We had a strike just before the IPO and we

596
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 8: were able to mobilize lots of drivers and to get

597
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:25,839
Speaker 8: media to cover the strike and the issues that we're

598
00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:31,360
Speaker 8: fighting for that any article that mentioned Uber's glorious IPO

599
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:34,239
Speaker 8: is going to have to mention the struggles that the

600
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:36,840
Speaker 8: drivers are going through, and that is all not sunshine

601
00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:37,680
Speaker 8: at this company.

602
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,480
Speaker 7: They planned the strike for May eighth, twenty nineteen, just

603
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 7: two days before Uber went public.

604
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:47,720
Speaker 2: It was a twenty four hour strike.

605
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:52,319
Speaker 3: We started, I believe twelve midnight all the way to

606
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 3: twelve midnight the next day.

607
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:56,280
Speaker 2: We ran this like a tour bus.

608
00:36:56,560 --> 00:36:59,400
Speaker 3: The tour bus was next to the parking and everybody

609
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 3: was parking the car getting on the tour bus and

610
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,480
Speaker 3: the tour bus will take you to the terminus. But

611
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,880
Speaker 3: it was like super fun. Everybody was having fun. I

612
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,280
Speaker 3: still remember doing a live video from the parking lot.

613
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,440
Speaker 2: That day. We had, I believe.

614
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 3: Like six hundred and seven hundred drivers showing up there.

615
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:23,480
Speaker 2: The main issue pay structure.

616
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,839
Speaker 8: Strike organizers say Uber and other ride share companies can

617
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 8: take what amounts to as much as fifty percent of

618
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:30,680
Speaker 8: the passenger fairs.

619
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:33,160
Speaker 9: The strike became a global action.

620
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:37,799
Speaker 1: Here in London, we are expecting drivers to start boycotting

621
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 1: the apps starting at seven am this morning.

622
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 3: Porta filog pro pub and everything came out that way

623
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:47,880
Speaker 3: we plan it. You know, It's kind of like when

624
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,239
Speaker 3: you do like a Kinsiana and everything comes out like

625
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:54,040
Speaker 3: super good, no fights, no drunk people, you know, casting problems.

626
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 3: That's how you feel, you know, I feel like I'm

627
00:37:56,120 --> 00:38:01,440
Speaker 3: proud of myself.

628
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 7: In the end, Uber's highly anticipated IPO was underwhelming, with

629
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 7: the company's stocks dropping over seven percent on the day

630
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:17,320
Speaker 7: it went public. Meanwhile, in California, the largest labor market

631
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 7: for US gig workers, new legislation was introduced that would

632
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 7: challenge the gigwork model. Assembly Woman lo Rena Gonzalez from

633
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:29,640
Speaker 7: San Diego was working on passing a bill that would

634
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 7: challenge Uber and Lyft operations and guarantee protections for workers.

635
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:38,120
Speaker 7: It was called Assembly Bill five, known as AB five.

636
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:42,160
Speaker 11: We have a tremendous amount of working poor in California,

637
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:47,480
Speaker 11: workers who have to rely on subsidized childcare and subsidized housing.

638
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 11: They have to rely on food stamps, on emergency room

639
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,080
Speaker 11: care because they don't have health care, and so many

640
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:55,720
Speaker 11: of these workers are misclassified.

641
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 7: Gonzalez based her proposal on a ruling from the California

642
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:03,400
Speaker 7: Supreme cour which stated that workers doing work that was

643
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:06,920
Speaker 7: considered central to the company's business model were to be

644
00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:11,920
Speaker 7: classified as employees and therefore should be granted worker protections.

645
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 7: If AB five passed, Uber and Lyft drivers would be

646
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:21,520
Speaker 7: guaranteed protections like a minimum wage, sick leave, paid time off,

647
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:26,400
Speaker 7: and workers compensation rights that drivers like Alvardo had spent

648
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 7: years advocating for.

649
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:30,920
Speaker 2: Pretty much what I'm fighting for this protection.

650
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:35,000
Speaker 3: It's really sad when I see somebody get into a

651
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 3: car accident, they go to the hospital and they came

652
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:41,240
Speaker 3: out like opening up, go find me, because they cannot

653
00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:42,240
Speaker 3: even affordo.

654
00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 2: Pay the medical bills. You know, that's the protection that

655
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 2: we need.

656
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:50,799
Speaker 7: Alvado remembers going to Sacramento, the state capitol, in a

657
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 7: tiny van packed with other drivers from Urdu.

658
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 2: We drove all night.

659
00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:59,640
Speaker 3: We had the meetings at seven am with all the

660
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,560
Speaker 3: send it the assembly, all the big chats in you know,

661
00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 3: in Sacramento, will start knocking doors to all the people

662
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:08,760
Speaker 3: who had the power to both.

663
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 2: Just on AB five.

664
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:13,120
Speaker 3: We had Asian people, we had Latino people, we had

665
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:16,359
Speaker 3: black people. And I told the five drivers that were

666
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 3: with me, I'm like, Okay, I want you guys to

667
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:23,520
Speaker 3: speak your language. Whatever you feel about Uber, tell them,

668
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:24,840
Speaker 3: tell them on your language.

669
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 7: Two of the most prominent opponents of AB five were

670
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:32,839
Speaker 7: guess who Uber and Lyft. They argued they were a

671
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:37,920
Speaker 7: tech platform for digital marketplaces and not primarily an employer

672
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:39,280
Speaker 7: of drivers.

673
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:43,440
Speaker 9: Despite Uber and.

674
00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 7: Lyft's lobbying efforts, the California state legislature voted in favor

675
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:52,359
Speaker 7: of the bill. ABY five was signed into law on

676
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 7: September eighteenth, twenty nineteen.

677
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:56,960
Speaker 3: Lift and Nuber, your billions are not going to help

678
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 3: this time because we have the power.

679
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:02,640
Speaker 7: In their arguments again AB five, Uber and Lyft claimed

680
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:06,600
Speaker 7: that treating drivers like employees would hurt their business. A

681
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 7: Barclay's analysis from June of twenty nineteen said that reclassifying

682
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:14,840
Speaker 7: their workers as employees under the law would cost Lift

683
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:18,800
Speaker 7: two hundred and ninety million dollars per year and Uber

684
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 7: five hundred million. That same year, Lyft made three point

685
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:28,120
Speaker 7: six billion dollars in revenue, while Uber made thirteen.

686
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:29,080
Speaker 9: Billion dollars in revenue.

687
00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:36,000
Speaker 7: It was only a month after AB five passed when

688
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:38,640
Speaker 7: Alao started noticing something strange.

689
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 3: Drivers starting able to set their own pricing. Everything we

690
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:47,120
Speaker 3: were fighting for, who was giving it to us? Like,

691
00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:49,680
Speaker 3: you're gonna be able to see where passengers are going.

692
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,400
Speaker 3: You can decline as many rights as you want, and

693
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 3: we're not gonna punish you.

694
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:55,560
Speaker 2: You can put your own pricing.

695
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 3: If you want to chart five dollars promle, you can

696
00:41:58,160 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 3: chart five dollar promile.

697
00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:02,000
Speaker 9: I thought it was on edge.

698
00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:06,279
Speaker 7: After the uphill battle to get AB five passed, all

699
00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:09,280
Speaker 7: the hearings, the late nights, the knocking on doors.

700
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,480
Speaker 9: Now things felt too easy.

701
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 3: Whatever we were fighting for, Uber is like, Okay, we're

702
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:18,279
Speaker 3: going to give it to the drivers. Because I knew

703
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:21,120
Speaker 3: they were cooking something I knew and I was right

704
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 3: because there.

705
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:23,719
Speaker 2: Were cooking Proposition twenty.

706
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:30,160
Speaker 4: Two coming up on Latino USA. Uber and Lyft spend

707
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:34,160
Speaker 4: a record breaking two hundred million dollars in advertising for

708
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:37,720
Speaker 4: Proposition twenty two, a new law in California that would

709
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 4: prevent drivers and other gig workers from getting the protections

710
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:45,320
Speaker 4: that they've been advocating for. And this law is only

711
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:49,840
Speaker 4: the beginning, setting the stage for future labor battles across

712
00:42:49,880 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 4: the country. Stay with us, Yes, hey, we're back. Before

713
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,360
Speaker 4: the break, we listen to the story of Ride share

714
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:42,280
Speaker 4: Drivers United. It's a group of Uber and Lyft drivers

715
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:46,200
Speaker 4: who have begun organizing in Los Angeles for better working conditions.

716
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:50,160
Speaker 4: After the passage of AB five, a law that would

717
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:55,640
Speaker 4: require Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as employees, tech

718
00:43:55,719 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 4: giants started to campaign in favor of new legislation, Proposition

719
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:05,240
Speaker 4: twenty two, a ballot measure to solidify their business model.

720
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:08,800
Speaker 4: Producer Julia Roche is going to pick up the story

721
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:09,280
Speaker 4: from here.

722
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:14,480
Speaker 7: After the passage of AB five in California, drivers were

723
00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 7: expected to get immediate access to a minimum wage, pay,

724
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:22,520
Speaker 7: time off, healthcare, and all the protections that employees are

725
00:44:22,719 --> 00:44:27,160
Speaker 7: entitled to. Instead, ubers started letting drivers set their own

726
00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:31,200
Speaker 7: pricing as a strategy to argue that drivers truly were

727
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:34,200
Speaker 7: independent contractors. Here's Vena again.

728
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,279
Speaker 5: If you think about the way law works, either there's

729
00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:44,399
Speaker 5: voluntary compliance or there is state enforcement. It was clear

730
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:47,279
Speaker 5: that the companies were not going to comply unless they

731
00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:49,759
Speaker 5: were forced to comply, unless there was a cop that

732
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:53,359
Speaker 5: said you have to obey the law. And so the

733
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:55,839
Speaker 5: cop here, of course, was the Labor Commissioner.

734
00:44:56,800 --> 00:45:01,279
Speaker 7: In February twenty twenty, Rideshare Drivers United organized through the

735
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:04,960
Speaker 7: Solidarity app to help drivers file claims of wage theft

736
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:08,759
Speaker 7: with the California Labor Commissioner's Office as a result of

737
00:45:08,800 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 7: not being classified as employees.

738
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:15,759
Speaker 8: Through Solidarity Tech, we created like a way for drivers

739
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 8: to fill out a series of forms about how much

740
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 8: they've been paid, how many hours they've been putting in,

741
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 8: what their expenses are, et cetera. And at the end

742
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 8: it determines how much has Uber underpaid you as a

743
00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:33,520
Speaker 8: result of their misclassification. So five thousand plus drivers submit

744
00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:38,000
Speaker 8: over one point three billion dollars of wage claims.

745
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 7: But as the Commissioner's office was processing all of these claims,

746
00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:45,360
Speaker 7: the world suddenly stopped. In the spring of twenty twenty,

747
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:49,440
Speaker 7: COVID nineteen lockdowns were in full effect across the country,

748
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 7: and the freeways in Los Angeles, usually an ocean of

749
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:56,120
Speaker 7: packed cars, were completely empty.

750
00:45:56,760 --> 00:46:00,719
Speaker 5: On the one hand, these workers were immediately labeled essential

751
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:04,000
Speaker 5: by the state, and on the other hand, you had

752
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:07,840
Speaker 5: a state that was unwilling to enforce any of the rights,

753
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:12,919
Speaker 5: any claims to security, any claims to healthcare, or any

754
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 5: claims to unemployment insurance, really unwilling to do anything for

755
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:19,520
Speaker 5: workers that they said were essential.

756
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 3: When the pandemic happened, I was really sad because I

757
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:30,760
Speaker 3: know a lot of drivers, you know, they passed away,

758
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 3: do it to the corona virus that they actually got

759
00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 3: the bius go out they were driving.

760
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:39,719
Speaker 2: They were so sad, like seeing this company and not

761
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:41,120
Speaker 2: care about their drivers.

762
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:44,719
Speaker 3: Like I was hoping that Liechtenuber was going to say, hey,

763
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:47,719
Speaker 3: here's three hundred dollars bonus, you know, just for you

764
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,000
Speaker 3: to buy food during a pandemic. I feel like this

765
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:52,360
Speaker 3: should be like a wake up call for drivers to

766
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 3: know that this company don't care about us.

767
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 7: Alboto's car wash, the one he bought with the savings

768
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:02,720
Speaker 7: from those early years as a lift driver, went under.

769
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:05,799
Speaker 7: He tried to keep his business open for as long

770
00:47:05,840 --> 00:47:09,360
Speaker 7: as possible, not wanting to send his employees home without

771
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,120
Speaker 7: a paycheck, but he had to sell it in April

772
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:16,480
Speaker 7: of twenty twenty. Right around that time, right hailing trips

773
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 7: dropped as much as eighty percent in major cities, Alvaro

774
00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:23,760
Speaker 7: decided to sign up to make deliveries with Amazon.

775
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:26,759
Speaker 3: I'll take one clause to go do the deliveries, and

776
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:29,040
Speaker 3: then another closing my cutting. When I would go home,

777
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:32,800
Speaker 3: I would change clothes, leave my shoes on the door,

778
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:36,400
Speaker 3: and go take a charger, and always like watching my hands.

779
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 6: You know.

780
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:39,319
Speaker 3: It was as stressful because you were thinking I might

781
00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:40,759
Speaker 3: have a you know, and I'm not going to give

782
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:41,920
Speaker 3: it to my wife and my kistener.

783
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,240
Speaker 7: At the same time, the drivers were risking their lives

784
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:48,480
Speaker 7: to continue working. There was a battle unfolding in the

785
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:52,080
Speaker 7: summer of twenty twenty, with two major lawsuits from state

786
00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:58,080
Speaker 7: officials against Uber and Lyft for violating ABY five. But

787
00:47:58,160 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 7: the tech giants continued to operate as usual during these

788
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:05,280
Speaker 7: court proceedings, and they were also developing an aggressive campaign

789
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:08,680
Speaker 7: for a new ballot measure, Proposition twenty two.

790
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 10: That flexibility gives drivers the independence other jobs can't offer.

791
00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:16,000
Speaker 9: Prop twenty two will give them that and more.

792
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:21,440
Speaker 7: Lift Uber and DoorDash funded the ballot initiative as a

793
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:25,279
Speaker 7: direct response against AB five and filed it in late

794
00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:29,400
Speaker 7: twenty nineteen, before the pandemic started. They were aiming for

795
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:35,040
Speaker 7: Californians to vote on it instead of legislators overwriting AB five.

796
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:39,280
Speaker 7: Prop twenty two would allow companies to keep their workers

797
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:44,120
Speaker 7: as independent contractors. Prop twenty two envisioned a limited set

798
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:48,080
Speaker 7: of benefits, such as an earnings guarantee, a healthcare stipend,

799
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:52,319
Speaker 7: and accident insurance, but not the basic protection of employment

800
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:56,880
Speaker 7: under state law. It also made it almost impossible for

801
00:48:57,000 --> 00:48:59,360
Speaker 7: workers to unionize.

802
00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:02,440
Speaker 5: In this particular historic moment when the Black Lives Matters

803
00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:07,080
Speaker 5: uprisings were taking America, when there was so much attention

804
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,359
Speaker 5: to racial inequality as a result of the number of

805
00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:14,279
Speaker 5: African American and LATINX people who had died already in

806
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:18,840
Speaker 5: the pandemic, and at the crux of their advertising was this,

807
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:23,920
Speaker 5: this work is work that poor people of color rely on,

808
00:49:24,760 --> 00:49:28,719
Speaker 5: and Prop twenty two is going to extend benefits for

809
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:32,920
Speaker 5: these poor people of color and create a minimum wage

810
00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 5: guarantee for those workers.

811
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:38,080
Speaker 7: The Prop twenty two campaign aimed to get the support

812
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:42,480
Speaker 7: of consumers and drivers. The ads were not only all

813
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:47,320
Speaker 7: over billboards, news programs, and social media, but also within

814
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:51,240
Speaker 7: the apps themselves. Drivers had to click through Prop twenty

815
00:49:51,239 --> 00:49:54,280
Speaker 7: two ads before they could even log into the apps

816
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:58,480
Speaker 7: to start working. One ad for Prop twenty two even

817
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:02,200
Speaker 7: appropriated the words of the poet Maya Angelou as it

818
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:05,719
Speaker 7: showed images of black and brown workers getting ready to

819
00:50:05,719 --> 00:50:06,799
Speaker 7: pick up passengers.

820
00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:10,360
Speaker 12: Lift up your eyes upon this day breaking for you.

821
00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 12: The horizon leans forward, offering your space to place new

822
00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:17,279
Speaker 12: steps of change.

823
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:21,640
Speaker 5: I say that Prop twenty two is a new version

824
00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:25,320
Speaker 5: of a racial wage code in which a majority immigrant

825
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:28,600
Speaker 5: and people of color workforce don't have access to the

826
00:50:28,640 --> 00:50:33,040
Speaker 5: same protections as all other workers have access to. You

827
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 5: don't have access to the minimum wage. You don't have

828
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:39,319
Speaker 5: access to overtime. You don't get health insurance. You don't

829
00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 5: get paid sick leave, you don't get paid family leave.

830
00:50:42,640 --> 00:50:46,920
Speaker 5: You don't get workers' compensation, you don't get unemployment insurance.

831
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:50,640
Speaker 5: You don't get disability insurance for life, which is what

832
00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:51,799
Speaker 5: many workers need.

833
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 7: Prop twenty two does offer what they call a minimum

834
00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 7: wage guarantee, where drivers you're paid at one hundred and

835
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:02,520
Speaker 7: twenty times the minimum wage, so that would add up

836
00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:06,359
Speaker 7: to around sixteen dollars an hour in California, but this

837
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:09,600
Speaker 7: is for what they call engage time, and this time

838
00:51:09,719 --> 00:51:13,359
Speaker 7: starts when the driver accepts a ride request and ends

839
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,400
Speaker 7: when they complete it, but doesn't account for all of

840
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:20,680
Speaker 7: the waiting time in between rides. A study by the

841
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:25,480
Speaker 7: University of California, Berkeley estimated that Prop twenty two guaranteed

842
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:28,959
Speaker 7: a minimum wage of less than six dollars an hour,

843
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:36,520
Speaker 7: considering variables like waiting time and unreimbursed expenses. On November third,

844
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:39,920
Speaker 7: twenty twenty, Prop twenty two passed in a state vote

845
00:51:40,200 --> 00:51:43,840
Speaker 7: with an over fifty eight percent rate of approval. A

846
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:47,279
Speaker 7: Capital Weekly survey found that forty percent of those who

847
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:50,719
Speaker 7: voted yes on Prop. Twenty two thought they were supporting

848
00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:55,760
Speaker 7: gig worker's ability to earn a living wage. At that time,

849
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:59,440
Speaker 7: it also became the most expensive ballot measure in the

850
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:03,280
Speaker 7: state's his way, with the company spending of record breaking

851
00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:07,759
Speaker 7: two hundred and five million dollars in advertising. Lift and

852
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:11,879
Speaker 7: Uber funded half of it.

853
00:52:11,880 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 2: It wasn't a surprise for me.

854
00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:15,960
Speaker 3: I worked hard to convince people, but at the end

855
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:19,000
Speaker 3: of that they money tax i kind of like new

856
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:21,239
Speaker 3: but at the same time, I was not going to

857
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 3: give up.

858
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:27,920
Speaker 7: Soon after Proposition twenty two passed, Uber reversed the changes

859
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:30,279
Speaker 7: that it had made to give drivers more autonomy in

860
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:33,760
Speaker 7: their work, such as allowing drivers to set their own pricing.

861
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:38,279
Speaker 7: The passage of Prop twenty two had effects beyond just

862
00:52:38,480 --> 00:52:42,280
Speaker 7: Uber and left drivers. Sean Caroline, one of the early

863
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:45,520
Speaker 7: investors of Uber, published an op ed in a tech

864
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:50,200
Speaker 7: industry newspaper called The Information. Viena points out that the

865
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:52,760
Speaker 7: article illustrated a worrisome trend.

866
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:57,000
Speaker 5: He talks about how because Prop twenty two passed, as

867
00:52:57,120 --> 00:53:01,200
Speaker 5: investors as vcs, we should be pushing to gig afy

868
00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:05,840
Speaker 5: other forms of work, like the healthcare sector, like the

869
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:09,000
Speaker 5: educational sector, like retail restaurant work.

870
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:13,719
Speaker 7: Proposition twenty two also resonated across the country, and in

871
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:17,480
Speaker 7: November of twenty twenty, the CEOs of Uber and Lyft

872
00:53:17,719 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 7: announced that they intended to scale the legislation to the

873
00:53:20,680 --> 00:53:24,239
Speaker 7: federal level. In August of this year, they filed a

874
00:53:24,280 --> 00:53:29,359
Speaker 7: petition for a similar ballot measure in Massachusetts. They say

875
00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:32,040
Speaker 7: gig companies are working on a potential ballot question for

876
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:34,960
Speaker 7: twenty twenty two that would have a negative impact on

877
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:38,680
Speaker 7: app based drivers. The future of Prop twenty two is

878
00:53:38,760 --> 00:53:42,040
Speaker 7: still up in the air. In January twenty twenty one,

879
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:46,160
Speaker 7: a group of drivers and the Service Employees International Union

880
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:51,399
Speaker 7: filed a lawsuit in California Supreme Court challenging Prop twenty two.

881
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:56,520
Speaker 7: Then in August, a California judge ruled that Prop twenty

882
00:53:56,520 --> 00:54:01,439
Speaker 7: two was unconstitutional, saying that only the date legislature has

883
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:06,080
Speaker 7: the power to regulate certain worker protections like compensation for injuries.

884
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:10,719
Speaker 7: Alvato remembers when he first heard the news.

885
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:13,920
Speaker 3: I remember that I'm driving and I read that the

886
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:16,920
Speaker 3: judge said that from precentage conversation. I remember I was

887
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:20,719
Speaker 3: replying with like emoji, like dancing emojis, and everybody and

888
00:54:20,760 --> 00:54:24,160
Speaker 3: all the drivers were laughing. This corporation. They tell, okay,

889
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:28,640
Speaker 3: we spend two hundred million dollars, we rolled out our

890
00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:33,319
Speaker 3: own law, it became law, and now we're untouchable, and

891
00:54:33,360 --> 00:54:33,959
Speaker 3: they were wrong.

892
00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:38,880
Speaker 7: Immediately after the ruling, the Protect App Based Drivers and

893
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:44,160
Speaker 7: Services Coalition, an organization that represents Uber Lift and other

894
00:54:44,200 --> 00:54:47,759
Speaker 7: apps that funded Prop twenty two, announced that they would

895
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:51,640
Speaker 7: appeal the decision as to ab five. It's still in

896
00:54:51,719 --> 00:54:54,840
Speaker 7: place and could be reapplied to right hailing drivers in

897
00:54:54,880 --> 00:54:59,000
Speaker 7: the future depending on what the courts ultimately decide, But

898
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:02,920
Speaker 7: in the meantime, Prop twenty two prevails for drivers.

899
00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:04,600
Speaker 9: In July of.

900
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:09,560
Speaker 7: Twenty twenty one, Alvaro, Esterphani and Ivan met again, this

901
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:13,440
Speaker 7: time for a rally at LA's airport. My co producer

902
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:14,640
Speaker 7: Patricia was there.

903
00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:23,720
Speaker 1: On the ground, Dozens of drivers are wearing bright green

904
00:55:23,960 --> 00:55:27,280
Speaker 1: rdu T shirts that are gathering at a small park

905
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:32,120
Speaker 1: right next to the terminals. These protests may not have

906
00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:36,000
Speaker 1: hundreds of drivers like their strike in twenty nineteen, but

907
00:55:36,120 --> 00:55:39,520
Speaker 1: it feels like an intimate reunion between an unlikely group

908
00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:44,280
Speaker 1: of friends. There is a former fashion designer, a school teacher,

909
00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:49,080
Speaker 1: a retired union organizer, a stay at home dad. These

910
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:51,960
Speaker 1: people come from all different backgrounds and they are the

911
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:58,439
Speaker 1: face of this form of precarious labor. I walk into

912
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:01,560
Speaker 1: the rally with Stephani, and it's like walking into the

913
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:04,880
Speaker 1: party with the most popular kid in school. She says

914
00:56:04,880 --> 00:56:07,560
Speaker 1: hello and stops to catch up with a few people

915
00:56:07,719 --> 00:56:11,000
Speaker 1: before she walks onto a concrete platform fashion as a

916
00:56:11,040 --> 00:56:13,400
Speaker 1: stage and takes a microphone.

917
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:19,759
Speaker 10: Because a truly independent contractor is someone who negotiates the

918
00:56:19,880 --> 00:56:24,759
Speaker 10: contract before signing it. We don't get the negogi anything.

919
00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:28,160
Speaker 1: Drivers are waiting to see what state courts decide about

920
00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:31,800
Speaker 1: Prop twenty two, but they're still keeping the fight alive.

921
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:36,640
Speaker 1: On the federal level. Lately, some drivers have been rallying

922
00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:40,480
Speaker 1: around to Protect the Right to Organize Act, a federal

923
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:44,840
Speaker 1: law that would protect workers trying to unionize. Although it

924
00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:48,239
Speaker 1: passed in the House of Representatives last March, it's been

925
00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:50,240
Speaker 1: stalled in the Senate since then.

926
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:53,920
Speaker 10: Because with a proact, not only does it recognize that

927
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 10: we have the right to organize, but we can collective

928
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:03,160
Speaker 10: bargain a contract that could change our reality.

929
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:07,600
Speaker 1: On one hand, the rally had this festive atmosphere, like

930
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:10,960
Speaker 1: being at a picnic with friends, but all of the

931
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:14,640
Speaker 1: drivers were here for a vital reason to fight for

932
00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:17,680
Speaker 1: their livelihoods and for their rights as workers.

933
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:22,120
Speaker 2: They promised us that we were going to have health care.

934
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:24,960
Speaker 3: On their Prop twenty two, none of us are getting

935
00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:27,439
Speaker 3: no protection, saying none of us are getting health care.

936
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:29,640
Speaker 2: Whatever they promised was a lie.

937
00:57:33,240 --> 00:57:37,720
Speaker 1: With legal battles unfolding, Alberto knows the struggle over Proposition

938
00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:41,080
Speaker 1: twenty two and the struggle over workers' rights is far

939
00:57:41,120 --> 00:57:45,280
Speaker 1: from over for him. It's clear that this fight is

940
00:57:45,320 --> 00:57:47,520
Speaker 1: about more than just right hailing drivers.

941
00:57:47,960 --> 00:57:51,400
Speaker 2: What about Roman, what about Target? They all can go

942
00:57:51,680 --> 00:57:55,000
Speaker 2: the same route. They all can say we're not going to.

943
00:57:55,040 --> 00:57:59,520
Speaker 3: Hire employees because we can save so much money by

944
00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:02,840
Speaker 3: avoiding paying them benefits. We're going to call them independent contraction.

945
00:58:03,040 --> 00:58:05,200
Speaker 3: I mean, that's the future that we're looking for, and

946
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:08,760
Speaker 3: we don't want that. We don't want another three hundred

947
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:11,640
Speaker 3: Jeff Vessel that they're gonna be billion artists because of

948
00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:15,080
Speaker 3: our hard work and because they're avoiding pay and as

949
00:58:15,360 --> 00:58:16,440
Speaker 3: benefits and protection.

950
00:58:20,240 --> 00:58:22,960
Speaker 1: Albardo has seen his lift weight just continue to drop

951
00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:26,480
Speaker 1: over the past eight years. He recently had to find

952
00:58:26,520 --> 00:58:31,320
Speaker 1: a new part time job managing insurance claims following natural disasters,

953
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:34,640
Speaker 1: but he's clear that he doesn't want to quit driving.

954
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:39,360
Speaker 3: I mean still active because I feel like I cannot

955
00:58:39,640 --> 00:58:43,000
Speaker 3: tell drivers how bad these companies are if I'm not

956
00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:46,800
Speaker 3: like involved. I have to see what changes they're doing.

957
00:58:46,840 --> 00:58:49,160
Speaker 3: I have to see when they lower the rates. I

958
00:58:49,400 --> 00:58:50,520
Speaker 3: know what's going on.

959
00:58:50,920 --> 00:58:51,640
Speaker 2: This is a.

960
00:58:51,520 --> 00:58:54,920
Speaker 3: Fight that I'm doing for future generation, because if we

961
00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:58,040
Speaker 3: don't stand up, if we don't fight these big corporations

962
00:58:58,080 --> 00:59:00,000
Speaker 3: are going to start like making their own lots.

963
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:05,120
Speaker 1: Alvaro wants to work, but he wants to work in

964
00:59:05,240 --> 00:59:09,200
Speaker 1: safe and just conditions, like everyone deserves to.

965
00:59:11,080 --> 00:59:11,800
Speaker 2: Have kids.

966
00:59:12,160 --> 00:59:15,480
Speaker 3: And if my kids in the future can see my

967
00:59:15,720 --> 00:59:19,280
Speaker 3: name somewhere and say my dad was fighting for this

968
00:59:19,520 --> 00:59:22,520
Speaker 3: what we're like enjoying now he was fighting for That's

969
00:59:22,520 --> 00:59:23,560
Speaker 3: gonna make me feel prattle.

970
00:59:47,480 --> 00:59:51,320
Speaker 4: This episode was produced by Julia Rocha and Patricia Subaran.

971
00:59:51,840 --> 00:59:55,920
Speaker 4: It was edited by Martin Martinez and Alejandra Salassad and

972
00:59:56,040 --> 00:59:59,080
Speaker 4: mixed by Stephanie the Bow, Julia Caruso and j J.

973
00:59:59,320 --> 00:59:59,680
Speaker 2: Rubin.

974
01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:04,720
Speaker 4: Fact checking for this episode by Nazanin Hagem and Elisa Baena.

975
01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:09,720
Speaker 4: The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Cruzado, Mike Sargent,

976
01:00:09,960 --> 01:00:15,480
Speaker 4: Julieta Martinelli, Vittori Estrada, Gilli Montalbo, and Rinaldo Leanos Junior,

977
01:00:15,720 --> 01:00:19,160
Speaker 4: with help from Raoul Perees. Our editorial director is Julio

978
01:00:19,240 --> 01:00:24,680
Speaker 4: Ricardo Barela. Our associate engineer is Gabriela Bias. Our digital editor.

979
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:25,240
Speaker 2: Is Louis Luna.

980
01:00:25,720 --> 01:00:29,800
Speaker 4: Our New York Women's Foundation Ignite fellow is Maries Kinka.

981
01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:34,320
Speaker 4: Our fellows are Montica Morales, and Andrew Vignalis. Our theme

982
01:00:34,360 --> 01:00:37,280
Speaker 4: music was composed by Ze Robinos. If you like the

983
01:00:37,360 --> 01:00:40,200
Speaker 4: music you heard on this episode, stop by Latinousa dot

984
01:00:40,320 --> 01:00:44,040
Speaker 4: org and check out our weekly Spotify playlist. I'm your

985
01:00:44,080 --> 01:00:47,240
Speaker 4: host and executive producer Maria Jojosa. Join us again on

986
01:00:47,280 --> 01:00:50,320
Speaker 4: our next episode, and in the meantime, we'll see you

987
01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:54,000
Speaker 4: on all of our social media. I'll see you there, Chao.

988
01:00:56,440 --> 01:01:01,120
Speaker 13: Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment,

989
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:06,040
Speaker 13: building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians. W. K.

990
01:01:06,360 --> 01:01:11,040
Speaker 13: Kellogg Foundation, a partner with Communities where Children Come First,

991
01:01:11,960 --> 01:01:14,880
Speaker 13: and the chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

992
01:01:18,240 --> 01:01:19,400
Speaker 5: I'm going to take a taxi?

993
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:20,600
Speaker 10: Yeah, do you approve?

994
01:01:21,560 --> 01:01:22,080
Speaker 2: I approve.