
Jason Schaal was sitting at home in Minneapolis last month when he opened his phone to check his email. Among the messages was one from Uber bearing the subject line, “Make your voice heard.” It said the US Department of Labor was hammering out countrywide rules “to determine the independent status of gig workers” and asked Schaal to comment on the plan. As an Uber driver, Schaal said he found the persuasive tone of the email unsettling.
“One of the top reasons you drive with Uber is the flexibility,” read the Oct. 22 email, which was seen by CNET. It asked Schaal to share a few sentences about being an independent contractor, giving prompts like “the ability to balance other jobs” and “earn extra money as a student, caretaker or retiree.”
Schaal, who does full-time gig work for Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Shipt, clicked the link in the email, which took him to a comment page on the Department of Labor’s website. He opted not to leave feedback.
“As I read that email, one of the impressions I got is that Uber is going to put their spin on things,” Schaal said during a phone interview. “It’s almost manipulating to persuade drivers to comment with Uber’s point of view.”
The timing of Uber’s message was no coincidence. It came 12 days before the ride-hailing company’s big victory in California, where it and other gig economy companies spent $205 million to convince voters to approve its Proposition 22 ballot measure. The measure ensures that drivers in the state are classified as independent contractors, rather than employees, sidestepping the need for companies to provide benefits like health insurance. The companies hope to replicate their ballot box success across the country, and they’ve already been plotting their national push.
Spokespeople for Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash confirmed to CNET that the companies are planning to bring their Proposition 22 model nationwide, saying that’s what gig workers want.
The emails to drivers like Schaal represent just one element of Uber’s broader strategy to go countrywide. In August, the company published a white paper outlining “priorities for industry and government action” on gig worker classification state by state. That same month, Uber released findings from a nationwide survey it commissioned on what drivers and voters think about workers being classified as independent contractors. The company has also hired a record number of federal lobbyists and created an information portal for drivers titled “Together, we can reinvent independent work.”
Now, with the California vote showing it’s possible to beat laws and regulators with a lot of money and groundwork, Uber and its gig economy companions have hit the ground running in the rest of the country. Emboldened by the Proposition 22 win, Uber and Lyft said they’ve been reaching out to unions, state regulators, governors and federal officials. The companies say California could serve as a template for how gig workers should be classified nationwide.
“Going forward, you’ll see us more loudly advocate for new laws like Prop 22,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during an earnings call earlier this month. “It’s a priority for us to work with governments across the US and the world to make this a reality.”
On Wednesday, Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash and Postmates launched a coalition out of Washington, DC, called the App-Based Work Alliance. The aim, the coalition says, is to “preserve worker independence.” It points to Proposition 22’s passage and says it will educate state officials on independent work and “promote federal policies that support the growing on-demand economy and urge Congress to think more ambitiously when it comes to modernizing our nation’s labor laws.”
Similarly, Lyft has launched political action committees to work on independent contractor legislation in Illinois and New York, according to Vice. The company formed the Illinois PAC in June and has contributed $1.2 million to the cause. Called Illinoisans for Independent Work, Lyft’s PAC sent out mailers, bought digital ads and donated to 50 political candidates’ campaigns in Illinois for the November election. The PAC’s website is mostly bare and just says, “We’re fighting for Illinois Workers and their right to independence.”
The gig economy companies say the battle over gig worker status is existential. If they’re required to classify drivers as employees, the companies will have to pay for drivers’ health insurance, minimum wage and sick leave — adding high costs that the companies say could hurt their bottom lines. Uber, Lyft and DoorDash aren’t yet profitable. According to Uber, about 7 million people in the US did gig work for at least one of the companies in 2019, with about 1 million of them working for Uber.
As for gig workers, many say they need more labor protections from the companies. They say they struggle to pay rent and doctor bills, and to put food on the table, according to a survey by the Institute for Social Transformation at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Drivers and labor activists who opposed Proposition 22 say they too are planning to take their battle nationwide.
“The big platform companies may have won in California, but the gig worker fight has only just begun,” said Brendan Sexton, executive director of the Independent Drivers Guild, which represents 800,000 ride-hail drivers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. “California’s experience should light a fire under pro-worker state legislatures across the country.”