Let's go to, let's go to our friend Manuel Antonio Rodriguez calling, I believe from
Mexico city, or at least potentially from Mexico city.
Well, I want to [inaudible].
No, I don't want that.
I only went to Milan.
My parents are from Guatemala.
I'm doing good.
Thank you for taking my call.
Of course.
I'm actually calling you live right now from Beverly Hills.
Um, our organization, the mobile workers Alliance, actually having a, uh, a protest outside of
the Uber Uber founder, uh, Garrett camp on house.
But anyways, my question is, is this, um, the last time we spoke, we were speaking about
Uber and Lyft drivers.
And I want to talk to you about that again, but I want to tell you about some developments.
So the California governor Gavin Newsom signed the new law recently, uh, where basically
in California, Uber and Lyft drivers and other like, you know, food delivery people are going
to be considered employees now and no longer independent contractors, right.
That law is gonna kick in January one.
Um, and basically it's gonna have more protection for us, for us drivers and you know, we're
going to, hopefully we'll be, you know, able to collect, you know, wages overtime wages.
Once you start doing that, I will have more, you know, more benefits.
Hopefully some paid sick leave with that.
But here's the kicker.
Um, Uber and Lyft and door dash recently announced that they're going to put $90 million towards
basically reversing that through one of those, I will a California state initiative, you
know, like one of those proxy yes.
And that set to take, basically they're going to try to put it on the November, 2020 ballot.
Um, I guess I want him to hear what you think about that.
I mean, it is direct democracy in a sense that people get to vote on these laws, but
you know, the way we see it as that, and they're cutting the protect California, uh, app drivers,
something like that.
And so basically they're, they're, they're putting in this law and they're trying to
say that they're going to do a, they're gonna provide a lot of benefits from that, such
as minimum wage.
But when you actually look at the details, you know, some of these things, they don't
need to do it through, through a California state initiative.
They could, if they want to pay us more, or if they want to pay us a minimum, they could
start doing it tomorrow.
Does that make sense?
Absolutely.
So this, this is going to be a massive propaganda campaign.
This will be a massive propaganda campaign.
They're going to pour money in.
They've calculated that getting this reversed is worth more than the 90 million.
They're going to put in, I don't know if that's the number you're saying it's the number I
believe you, but it may not be, let's assume that it is a, and you're absolutely right.
They're going to package it as if, if we reversed the decision about the Uber and Lyft drivers
having to be classified as employees, we will raise wages and we will do all these different
things and you're completely right.
They could have done all of those things all along and it is direct democracy.
But when one side has 90 million, is it a fair playing field?
Is the question, and this is what always comes up in these cases.
So listen, I think it's the right decision for the drivers to be classified as employees.
Uh, I would not be surprised if there is a very effective campaign mounted to get it
overturned.
But I do think that it is not clear that they can win that on a ballot initiative.
I think that a lot of people everywhere, including in California, understand the importance of
why the drivers should be classified as employees.
So we'll see how it develops.
Right.
And then let me just tell you one of the things that they're proposing and this enlisted of,
so supposedly they're going to put payment minimum wage now, which is all great.
And like I said, they can start doing that tomorrow if they really wanted to pay us some
them ways, right.
But the way they want to calculate a minimum wage is not if as soon as we accept the ride.
So a lot of times I never sit in their cars waiting to pick up people, but it's just,
it's not busy or the area that they're in, there's not, you know, no one's requesting
any ride.
So they're already having loopholes in that.
So they're not seeing this work for waiting.
So in other words, if in an hour, if in an, if in a real hour you had 40 minutes during
which you were on rides, you really are only owed two thirds of an hour of minimum wage,
even though you were in the car for the first 60 minutes.
Yeah,
yeah, yeah.
So we have hundreds of drivers here in Beverly Hills and we're going to go to, you know,
to the mansion.
He just bought it.
He paid 72 point $5 million for this mansion, one of the biggest purchases here in the,
in Beverly Hills in the nine Oh two one Oh but we drivers, we're sick of it David.
And so you know, if there's any drivers listening I hope they can get involved with them, who
I work with than I am.
Right.
Okay. Manuel Antonio.
Always a pleasure.
Great to hear from you and keep it up.
Okay.
You want him in there?
All right, we will talk to you
soon.
Let's take a quick break.
Don't hang up if you are on the phone cause we will go right back to the phones on the
other side of the spring.