Tuesday, August 24th, 2021:

  • [San Francisco Chronicle]:   Saori Okawa and Jim Pyatt both work for gig companies, but they have diametrically opposite views about whether they should be employees — and about Proposition 22, the ballot measure that a judge last week ruled violated California's constitution in a case brought by labor unions. California Prop. 22, into which gig companies poured a record-breaking $200 million-plus, keeps workers for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart as independent contractors, exempting them from being reclassified as employees under California's AB5 law. Voters passed Prop. 22 in November, but now its future is in question... (read full article)
  • [CNBC]:   Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Coalition, which backs Preposition 22, told Reuters it is appealing Roesch's decision.   "As this goes to higher courts, the appeal court in California, we're extremely confident that the proposition will be upheld," Zimmer, who also co-founded Lyft, said in an interview Monday on "Mad Money."   Lyft, Uber and other businesses in the so-called gig economy such as DoorDash spent millions of dollars in favor of the initial ballot measure, which in November passed with nearly 59% of California voters supporting it.   The companies had warned that classifying drivers as employees would lead to higher operating costs — such as needing to pay into unemployment insurance — that would, in turn, be passed onto consumers through price increases for services... (read full article)
  • [ABC 8 News | Richmond]:   An Uber driver in Richmond is searching for answers after she says she was robbed at gunpoint by her passenger. The robber took the driver's cell phone and car and is still on the loose.   It was Rose Beverly's first ride of the day on Friday, July 30, when she picked up a man around 3 a.m.   Beverly was notified of a passenger by the name of Rose who wanted to stop at the Wawa along Brook Road. She said they had a normal conversation... (read full article)
  • [FOX 9 KMSP]:   An 18-year-old man was charged for allegedly shooting and killing a 16-year-old in Brooklyn Park earlier this month.   Marcus Aaron Thornton was arrested Monday and is charged with one count of second-degree murder in connection to the crime.  According to the criminal complaint, at about 3:42 p.m. Aug. 17, police responded to reports of shots fired at the African Market in Brooklyn Park. Dispatch reported that a juvenile male was shot multiple times and was still inside the vehicle where the shooting occurred... (read full article)
  • [Bloomberg Law]:   Lyft Inc. was hit with a proposed class action in federal court alleging it misclassified drivers in New York as independent contractors when they're actually employees under state labor law.   The complaint was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by Irwan Chandra, who previously worked as a Lyft driver in New York City, seeking to represent other similarly situated workers.   Drivers are employees under New York law and Lyft's misclassification of them as contractors has unlawfully deprived them of minimum and overtime wages, the complaint says. It has also allegedly forced them... (read full article)
  • [Yahoo Finance]:   Why haven't all previous Uber and Lyft drivers gotten back behind the wheel as the world has opened back up? One reason could be that they're actually making more money being unemployed than they are being a gig worker.   "Given the federal unemployment bonus on top of state unemployment payments, a lot of former drivers are making more out of work than they would driving, and doing so without the wear-and-tear on their autos," Earle said.   On top of the driver shortage, we've also got the rental car shortage, which only intensifies the demand for Uber and Lyft, and then on top of that we've got the rising cost of fuel, Earle said... (read full article)
  • [CBS DFW]:   Walmart is commercializing its delivery service, using contract workers, autonomous vehicles and even drones to deliver other retailers' products directly to customers' homes.   The Arkansas-based retailer launched delivery and Express delivery for its shoppers three years ago on more than 160,000 items from more than 3,000 stores. The nation's largest retailer aims to tap into its ties with local communities, particularly businesses in rural areas that have struggled to implement their own delivery operations... (read full article)

 

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