Uber and Lyft Notch Another Corporate Victory in the Global Exploitation of ‘Gig Workers’

Proposition 22, a ballot initiative put forth by Uber, Lyft and other platform companies (incurring over $200 million in campaign expenditure) was recently passed in California. The campaign that often resorted to disinformation tactics was organized around the idea that gig workers desired the flexibility and autonomy that Prop 22 would bring, as opposed to W2 employee contracts that AB5 would have instituted. The falsity of this proposition and the alarming consequences this could have on the lives of workers are foregrounded through the experiences of platform workers in Cambodia and India who have lost their autonomy and flexibility in frightening ways with the arrival of platform companies.