No on 22 Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 15, 2020

Contact: Mike Roth, 916.813.1554

Rideshare Drivers Wrap-Up Two-Day, Five City “Drive to the Ballot” Statewide Caravan Against Uber, Lyft and DoorDash’s Deceptive Prop 22 as Californians Start Filling Out their Ballots

As App Companies Inundate Californians With Misleading $185 Million Ad Campaign, Drivers Barnstorm the State to Tell Voters the Truth About Prop 22:

No sick pay, No workers’ comp and No unemployment insurance;

Deepening inequality for workforce that is 78% people of color 

Caravan Joined by Local Community Leaders at Stops in San Diego, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno and San Francisco 

CALIFORNIA - For the past two days, over 250 rideshare drivers blanketed California with a massive “Drive to the Ballot” statewide car caravan, bringing their No on Prop 22 message to five cities. As many Californians began voting from home in this unprecedented election, drivers took their No on Prop 22 message directly to voters, refusing to be silenced by Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash’s record-breaking $185 million spending to pass the ballot initiative they wrote so they can keep exploiting drivers for profit.  

Joined by prominent community leaders such as Civil Rights icon Dolores Huerta, Assemblymembers Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), and Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, and Oakland City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan, the drivers warned voters of the deepening racial inequality that will result if Prop 22 passes, as it would permanently lock a workforce comprised of 78% people of color into sub-minimum wages as low as $5.64 an hour and jobs with NO sick pay, NO workers’ compensation, and NO unemployment insurance. 

"Over the past two days, more than 250 rideshare and delivery drivers crossed the state to speak directly to voters about how deceptive Prop 22 is,” said Luz Laguna, an Uber driver and organizer with Mobile Workers Alliance from Los Angeles. “Uber, Lyft and other companies may have spent more than $185 million on a slick campaign intended to drive down wages and exploit workers, but drivers have made one thing clear: we will not allow these billion dollar companies to buy their own laws. The voters we’ve talked to are standing with workers, not Silicon Valley executives, and they’re voting NO on Prop 22.” 

"Drivers have spent the last two days speaking with voters around California and one thing is clear, voters support us. Every worker needs a livable wage, paid sick leave and other protections,” said Alan Franklin, a rideshare driver from Oakland and a member of We Drive Progress. "Prop 22 is a referendum on what we want the future of work to look like: good jobs that let us live and work with dignity, or unreliable and precarious gigs that give workers no security. I urge everyone to vote no on Proposition 22 to prevent billion dollar companies from cutting corners to exploit drivers and food delivery workers.”

“Uber, Lyft, and all the other gig companies bankrolling Prop. 22 always say the right thing about racial justice, they buy billboards saying they're anti-racist, they give statements saying that Black lives matter, but when it comes to supporting their workers, most of whom are Black and brown, they show their true colors," said Cherri Murphy, a former Lyft driver from Oakland and organizer with Rideshare Drivers United and Gig Workers Rising. "Impoverishing Black drivers is racist, preventing Black drivers from having access to healthcare is racist, and treating Black drivers as second-class workers is racist. We're here to tell the gig companies that Prop. 22 is a racist measure, and to tell voters throughout California that if they want to stand with Black drivers, they should vote no on Prop. 22."

"My abuela fought the original Prop. 22 in 1972 against farm owners, fighting with farmworkers in Bakersfield hoping for better conditions. Now, like then, a wealthy few are still trying to rig the rules to take from working people. Instead of taking their millions and spending it on PPE, drivers' sick pay, health insurance, and other things we need immediately, Uber, Lyft and DoorDash are bankrolling the most expensive ballot measure in California history. Drivers are coming together to ask Californians to stand with workers and not billionaires and to vote no on Prop 22," said Carlos Ramos, driver and organizer with Gig Workers Rising.

“I’m honored to stand in solidarity with everyone who is saying that our elections are not for sale - in Oakland and in California,” said Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland City Councilmember At-Large. “We won’t let billionaire bullies harm workers and communities.”

The strong and growing list of leaders opposed to Prop 22 includes: Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders and Civil Rights Icon Dolores Huerta. This week the New York Times joined the California Democratic Party, Color of Change, the Los Angeles Times, Sierra Club, and the Greenlining Institute to urge Californians to vote No on 22.  

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