'Imagine if they spent all this money paying workers fairly instead of on propaganda to prevent them from having to pay workers fairly,' GigWorkersRise said after app-based companies launched a new lobby group.
, a sweeping bill that, if passed, would expand collective bargaining rights, improve access to union elections, and impose penalties on businesses that exploit their workers.
The group will also fight state-level legislation to classify app-based drivers and other workers as employees—a status that would confer minimum pay, healthcare, and other benefits denied to independent contractors. "Imagine if they spent all this money paying workers fairly instead of on propaganda to prevent them from having to pay workers fairly," the advocacy group Gig Workers Risingthat some of Flex's members were previously members of the Internet Association, a lobby group representing tech titans including Facebook and Google.
Critics accuse app-based companies of seeking to extract maximum profits from their workers without providing them with the basic benefits and protections due to employees.the largest one-time political donation in Massachusetts history—$13 million—to a coalition launched to fund a ballot measure that, if passed, would deny drivers employee status.