From the Los Angeles Times, Suhauna Hussain reports on a bill in California that would allow rideshare drivers the ability to form unions. Suhauna writes:
California lawmakers are pursuing legislation that could give drivers for apps like Uber and Lyft the ability to form unions, while still being classified as independent contractors.
Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) plan to introduce Assembly Bill 1340, also titled the Transportation Network Company Drivers Labor Relations Act, on Tuesday.
The legislation would allow drivers to negotiate pay as well as other terms of their agreements with app-based companies, exempting them from state and federal antitrust laws that would prohibit such activity, according to a draft reviewed by The Times.
The proposal does not include food delivery drivers.
The exact process of how collective bargaining would be overseen by the state is not outlined in the proposal.
Wicks and Berman said that they expect those details to be hashed out during the legislative process, with conversations from all stakeholders, including drivers, ride-hailing companies and Service Employees International Union California, which is backing the bill.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and an Uber subsidiary successfully challenged the law, arguing that bargaining by independent-contractor drivers amounted to illegal concerted action and price fixing. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit disagreed with the city’s position that it had created a state-supervised regulatory program, finding that it was not exempt from antitrust law.
Read the full story at New California bill could allow Uber, Lyft drivers to unionize – Los Angeles Times