Uber and Lyft drivers have done
a strike today in 11 major cities.
This is a nationwide 24 hour strike
in order to demand
better working conditions,
better pay, and also to draw
attention to incredibly important
legislation called the PRO Act.
Now this strike is taking place,
as I mentioned, in 11 cities that
include San Diego, Austin, Boston,
Cleveland, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh,
Denver, and Baltimore.
And we should show solidarity
with these drivers.
If you were thinking about taking
an Uber today,
you're probably going to
have a difficult time finding one.
But if you happen to live in a city
or a state where drivers aren't
striking, I think it's important to
show solidarity with these workers
because the working conditions that
they're experiencing right
now is awful.
And they're trying to fight
the same thing that happened in
California from
spreading throughout the country.
And of course, I'm talking about
something called Proposition 22.
Now, Proposition 22 is absolutely
awful.
I'm going to get to
the ramifications of
that ballot initiative which passed
in California in just a minute.
But first the PRO Act.
So, app-based workers are fed up
with the exploitation from big
tech companies.
Misclassification is like concrete,
keeping us underground.
The PRO Act is the jackhammer that
will break that concrete apart,
allowing app-based workers
to organize.
The PRO Act empowers labor.
It makes it easier for a company or
workers in a company to unionize
without retaliation.
There's really no uniformity in
terms of labor protections in this
country.
And the PRO Act would help provide
protections regardless of which
state you live in as a worker.
If you're in a red state like
Alabama for instance,
the laws on a federal level would
provide additional and much needed
protection for workers so
they would be able to unionize
without fear of losing their jobs,
or without fear of retaliation as
a result of unionizing.
Now, going to Prop 22,
actually before I get to Prop 22,
and what it did here
in the state of California, John,
I wanted you to weigh in.
This is an important strike in
my opinion, do you think that it's
going to have any impact?
>> I mean, like with climate
change, I don't think we'll be able
to point to this and say this is
the thing, but hopefully it will
get people around the country to
start thinking about this more.
I mean, as you're going to
describe, they're going up against
an incredible amount of money.
I mean, the amount that they poured
into just one state, understanding
that it's symbolic, that it sets
a precedent and all that,
but still just one state is absurd.
And it's great to see that
companies that have had this much
trouble actually turning a profit,
just seemingly have unlimited money
to spend on these sorts of things
weirdly enough, >> Of course.
>> But yeah,
I hope that it gets people at least
a little bit invested in this.
I'm glad that you pointed out
the argument that was made by that
driver, the great use of metaphor
for the PRO Act,
which definitely is needed.
Supposedly is going to be a part of
the reconciliation bill,
although we'll have to see if it is
able to make it through.
I mean, after all it's something
that is widely popular, so much so
that even Joe Manchin is
in support of it.
But, Kyrsten Sinema,
to go back to your point earlier,
still not so much.
>> Yeah, I like that you mentioned
Joe Manchin because Joe Manchin
in particular,
especially his willingness to take
ownership of this legislation and
say that he supports it.
That didn't happen magically.
It didn't come out of nowhere.
DSA organizers had been hounding
him about the PRO Act and
finally he relented.
Now, of course, I'm under
the impression that he finally said
that he would support the Pro Act
because he assumed that there would
never be a situation in which he
would actually have to vote for it.
But since Bernie Sanders,
Senator Bernie Sanders, is baking
it into the reconciliation bill for
infrastructure, there's some
likelihood that it could pass.
But, Joe Manchin,
>> Assuming anything does.
>> Some likelihood.
I don't want to over promise
anything and I don't want to
come off as overly optimistic,
I'm certainly not.
But there is an avenue in which the
PRO Act could pass whereas before I
was like, if they're going to try
to do this as a standalone bill,
it's doomed, right?
So anyway, we'll see what
happens with that.
Now let's get to Prop 22.
So, Prop 22 authored by Uber, Lyft,
Instacart, and DoorDash went into
effect in mid-December of 2020
after an aggressive public
relations campaign of more than
$200 million, >> Should be illegal.
>> Launched by the companies.
I mean, I hear you on that,
absolutely.
The company's outspent opponents
to Prop 22 by ten to one,
making it the most expensive ballot
measure in California's history.
So what Prop 22 did was reclassify
workers in this third
classification in order to allow
these rideshare companies, or
these app-based companies,
to deny these workers typical
worker protections and benefits.
And they spent so much money on
propaganda to make these rideshare
employees think that passage of
the bill meant that they
would actually make more money and
have a lot more power over their
own schedule, right?
And unfortunately it worked.
And so now the employees,
not just in California, but
in the cities that I mentioned
earlier, are doing what they can to
prevent this kind of legislation or
this kind of ballot initiative
from being enacted or
proposed in their states.
>> Yeah. >> Go ahead.
>> Yeah, I mean the dollar figure
that you're talking about there is
absolutely absurd.
I was looking up, for comparison,
the cost of like presidential
campaigns historically.
God knows if this is accurate,
it's the FEC, but
supposedly the 2000 campaign,
the presidential campaign,
spent 500 million.
Okay, that was two decades ago.
That said, it was to be president,
not just to screw over some of
your employees in one state.
It is insane that
they were able to spend that money.
I understand,
I guess it's a free speech thing or
whatever, especially with
the Supreme Court that we've got.
Never forget the Supreme Court.
How can you allow them to spend
that much?
You live in California, so
you saw the ads, right?
>> You do too, I don't know
if you know that.
>> I do, well,
I saw the ads actually,
we have that in common.
They were so offensive.
>> Yup.
>> What it should be is,
if you want to be honest,
have your CEO sit there and
look in the camera and be like,
you know what, we're really
struggling financially.
We haven't figured out this
whole thing,
it's probably a house of cards.
But one thing that does seem to
rest on is making sure that our
employees make as little as
possible and have to scrape by with
no benefits whatsoever.
So, we'd love it if you would help
us continue that,
please support Prop 22 or whatever.
But making it about, supposedly, so
many of your workers just being
terrified at the idea that they
might get health insurance or
something, that is what
they went with.
And apparently was successful.
>> Yeah, it was unfortunately,
very successful in California.
Since Prop 22's passage, California
drivers have been reporting steep,
steep pay cuts and
worsening working conditions.
Ben Valdez,
who's a driver in Los Angeles, says
quote, if you try to earn money
just purely on the delivery fee,
it comes out to about $5 an hour.
A good day for me is maybe earning
$100 before gas and
expenses off eight hours of work.
I've had maybe three or four nights
where I literally made $4.
>> Wait, $100 before gas and
expenses when your job is driving?
>> Think about how screwed up this
is. >> What could possibly be
left over after that?
>> Okay, step back,
look at the broader picture of what
the business model has been for
Uber and Lyft alone, right?
So what they started off doing was
having their investors
subsidize the whole system.
So, if you have taken an Uber or
Lyft, especially in the early days,
and you're like, whoa, this is
a lot cheaper than taking a taxi.
Understand that it's not just that
they magically have lower prices,
their investors subsidized the cost
in order to keep the prices low.
And then basically put the taxi
industry out of business
to monopolize the market.
>> Or in addition, figured we'll
come up with something.
>> Right, and then what they did.
Lately, I made the mistake of
taking an Uber recently,
like a few months ago recently.
Mostly because I was bullied by
a friend to do it.
Yes, I'm calling it bullying,
I know you're
watching this right now.
And it was a $70 ride and
I wanted to pull my hair out.
>> My God.
>> Yeah, I was furious >> Did you
get to keep the car?
>> No.
>> because that's crazy.
>> But I like that you mentioned
the car because here's the other
thing they do.
The company doesn't provide
a vehicle for their drivers.
So they've forced the drivers to
use their own cars, pay for
their own gas, all of that.
So, that's why that quote is so
important because the driver is
specifically talking about what
the earnings are before having to
pay for gas, car maintenance, and
all of that.
>> Well, I'm assuming the wear and
tear in your car, eventually,
there's some sort of lump sum
payment from Uber to cover that.
>> No, zero.
>> No?
>> Zero.
>> That's crazy.
Yeah, the whole thing's ridiculous.
>> Well, I mean.
>> And it sucks because having it
be cheap is nice, I guess.
I honestly don't even know,
the drivers talking about how much
they're making.
I was shocked at how little
they end up taking home especially
considering, as you say,
the rides are very expensive.
So, obviously the money is going
somewhere, and if it's not going to
the drivers, I mean, that equation
isn't that difficult to figure out.
>> Well, John.
>> What is Uber even doing?
The driver is the only person
really doing work.
There's an app, but.
>> I've got the answer, John.
>> Okay, what do you got?
>> They don't get paid when they're
in their car driving around looking
for someone to take from point A to
point B.
So, a huge portion of their day
while they're working is
essentially unpaid labor because
they don't have a passenger in
their vehicle.
So you think about the maintenance
costs for the vehicle,
you think about the gas.
You think about the time spent in
the vehicle working where you're
not getting paid.
Prop 22 allowed this kind
of exploitation to take place.
So, the business model
is disgusting.
Keep in mind that Uber
has never turned a profit,
it just keeps bleeding money.
It's a failed business model, and
they're just screwing over their
workers.
It makes no sense.
And I like that these workers
are standing up and saying, no,
we're not going to take it anymore.
They're doing their strike today
and I hope this
is just the beginning, right?
I hope that this is something that
spreads across the country, but
it's hard, right?
Because if you don't have labor
protections that would be provided
under the PRO Act, you could lose
your only way for earning income.
>> Sure. >> Right?
>> Yeah,
it would be cool if there was some
other way in crowded urban settings
to move people around efficiently.
We've had scientists on it, but
someday they're going to come up
with something.
But anyway, please pay attention to
strikes like this, not just this,
but obviously we
talked a lot about Bessemer.
On the Damage Control Report we've
covered the coal strike that
mainstream media doesn't seem
to care about, even though,
aren't they required to pretend
they care about coal miners?
But they won't even pretend now.
But also understand that in some
cases, not necessarily, and this
does get exaggerated for propaganda
purposes for the corporations.
But some changes that we advocate
for might lead to having to pay
more or your Amazon deliveries
taking a little bit longer or
something like that.
But understand that what you
are earning with that is people
actually being treated humanely.
So, bear that in mind.