Companies like Uber and DoorDash drove the campaign to support Proposition 22 and shield app-based companies from California labor laws that would require drivers to be considered employees. When California voters approved the proposition in Nov. 2020, app-based companies were allowed to continue classifying drivers as independent contractors and not required to provide benefits.
In the run-up to the vote, drivers had more latitude to set their own fares and were given additional information about trips before they accepted fares. Now that the proposition passed, those benefits are changing, according to Chris Gerace, a contributor for The Rideshare Guy blog and rideshare driver, himself.
Apps like Uber are "shooting themselves in the foot. The relationship between drivers and the company has been strained for a very long time, especially when you take pay rates and you continue to decrease them over time," says Gerace.
Uber faced criticism during the campaign for Proposition 22 for pressuring employees ahead of the vote. Some of the app's drivers filed a class-action lawsuit claiming the company illegally coerced its drivers to support the ballot measure.
"Let's be absolutely clear," David Lowe, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. "Uber's threats and constant barrage of Prop 22 propaganda on an app the drivers must use to do their work have one purpose: to coerce the drivers to support Uber's political battle to strip them of workplace protections."
After the proposition passed, there was little reason to keep drivers' pay up, according to gig workers. "It's clear that as soon as Prop 22 passed, it was open season to start cutting my pay again," Peter Young, a rideshare driver for four years in Los Angeles, told the Guardian.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company is looking to bring down surge pricing and increase the number of drivers.
"The supply position is something we're still working on. It's definitely getting better but we're not happy with the ETAs and price levels we see and that is something we're going to invest to improve on," said Khosrowshahi at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Communications Conference.
