Posted on Feb 02, 2021 by LaborPains.org Team
Time and time again, we are reminded that few things are certain except death, taxes…and civil wars within labor movements. This latest scuffle occurred within the ranks of the Gig Workers Collective (GWC). The relatively young organization is committed to targeting and organizing shoppers on grocery delivery platforms such as Shipt and Instacart. GWC members […]
Posted on Nov 06, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team
This week, Proposition 22 — a California ballot measure that allows certain gig workers to be exempt from the state’s AB 5 law — passed with 58 percent of the vote. Now, app-based drivers for gig companies including Uber and Lyft are able to retain their independent contractor status, instead of being reclassified as employees […]
Posted on Oct 22, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team
Update: After this post went live, the Gig Workers Collective posted a response on its Facebook page. The post describes an even closer collaboration with the UFCW than we documented below. The Collective acknowledged that the union “directly [paid] Facebook for our newly launched ads” and has been “granted…access to our facebook (sic) page.” The Collective […]
Posted on Sep 09, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team
Among the more memorable examples of unions’ anti-transparency antics is the UFCW’s 2002 lawsuit to keep its constitution hidden from the public. Labor Notes reported in 2002: In February, the UFCW International had joined with UFCW Canada and Local 777 (now re-organized as Local 247) in an earlier lawsuit charging a UFCW shipping clerk with […]
Posted on Aug 03, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team
Reported today by Bloomberg Law, the Center for Union Facts and the Freedom Foundation have filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards against union-backed labor group Working Washington. The 57-page complaint, supported by a 500+-page appendix of evidence, calls for an investigation into Working Washington — a Seattle-based worker center whose […]
Posted on Jul 09, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team
Labor unions are accustomed to campaigning for workers’ rights. This fall in California, the script is flipped: They’re opposing a ballot measure that cements the status of gig workers (think DoorDashers or Uber Drivers) as independent contractors. Labor’s problem is that gig workers don’t want what it’s selling; by a 4-to-1 margin, they want to […]
Posted on May 18, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team
As if workers didn’t have enough to deal with while trying to navigate the coronavirus pandemic, California has gone and made matters even worse. The state is suing rideshare apps Uber and Lyft for violating the state’s AB5 law by allegedly misclassifying workers as independent contractors, instead of employees. We’ve covered which unions are funding […]
Posted on May 06, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team
This week, the state of California filed a lawsuit against ride-share companies Uber and Lyft. The lawsuit claims these gig companies are misclassifying workers as independent contractors under the state’s AB5 law. The suit was filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra; city attorneys from San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego joined in. Since unions can’t […]
