To the Editor:
Re “Gig Workers Deserve Better,” by Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber (Op-Ed, Aug. 11):
I am a driver for Uber in California, and this pandemic has shredded my income, as fewer people request rides and I struggle to get unemployment benefits. Uber didn’t send me enough personal protective equipment, so I’m paying for masks out of my own pocket. I know that I deserve better, I know my rights, and I know that I could better provide for my family if Uber were to simply classify me as an employee.
Last year, drivers organized and fought to win basic rights for gig workers across California. Now, we’re risking our lives to keep driving amid a global pandemic while simultaneously fighting Uber’s deceptive ballot initiative intended to rewrite decades of California law to put Uber’s corporate profits over drivers’ safety and well-being.
Uber’s strategy from its founding has been to ignore laws it doesn’t like and shift as many costs as possible onto drivers and taxpayers. Its entire business model is based on putting Uber first, no matter what.
Mr. Khosrowshahi’s call for new laws written for Uber’s benefit rings hollow because California drivers already have the legal protections we need; Uber just refuses to provide them. As Mr. Khosrowshahi acknowledges, Uber could choose to spend its billions of dollars to benefit drivers. But so far, Uber has declined to do so.
He complains about a false choice, but in reality Uber has been making a clear choice for a decade: to put corporate profits ahead of drivers and to put Uber’s special interests ahead of accountability and the rule of law.
Jose Ulises Cabrera
Montebello Calif.
The writer is a leader of the Mobile Workers Alliance.
To the Editor:
Trumpeting support for legislation requiring benefits for gig workers, then lobbying to minimize required contributions and the number of workers who qualify, is a public relations tactic to prevent legislation classifying workers as employees.
Benefits for gig workers is a bad-faith promise Uber has been making for more than three years. Pending legislation proposes only bare-bones benefits for a small minority of workers.
The California ballot initiative, for instance, pays only part of even a bronze Affordable Care Act plan for drivers working more than 15 hours a week on a single platform.
In Washington State, proposed legislation set company contributions toward benefits at 15 percent of total fees collected. Gig companies lobbied and negotiated their contributions down to 5 percent. This barely funds vision, dental and workers’ compensation insurance and is insufficient to finance health insurance or meaningful retirement savings.
Alissa Orlando
Brooklyn
The writer is a co-founder of IndyHub, a portable benefits platform, and a former Uber employee.