#Prop22 was the most expensive ballot initiative in history: "gig economy" companies firehosed $200m over voters, outspending 48/50 state legislative races on a single question.

That question: can employers misclassify workers as contractors and escape legal obligations?

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That's a high-stakes question. US workers spent more than a century fighting for basic rights: the right not the maimed, raped or killed on the job; the right to a living wage; the right to a weekend; the right not to be discriminated against based on race or sex or religion.

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Above all: the right to form a union and bargain collectively with employers who otherwise hold all the negotiating leverage - to pool their resources in the same way that gig economy companies did to fund Prop 22.

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Workers died for those rights. Bosses fought labor reforms with terror and rape, with blackmail and dirty tricks, with jails and blackballing.

Prop 22 can only be repealed if 7/8th of the California legislature votes to do so. It is, effectively, a permanent fixture.

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$200m to pass Prop 22 is a BARGAIN. Every right for workers shifts money from bosses' side of the balance sheets to the workers' side. Prop 22 erased all those rights in a single stroke.

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After Prop 22 passed, Shawn Carolan, a prominent VC (and Uber investor), published an op-ed declaring Prop 22 would come for workers "from all sorts of industries...nursing, executive assistance, tutoring, programming, restaurant work and design."

https://t.co/zH1SAQxZLY

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He was right. Prop 22 is the future. Most jobs can be gig-ified, provided there is a large pool of desperate workers who are willing to take sub-survival wages and give up on basic protections. Securing such a pool merely requires the withdrawal of basic social safety nets.

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It's been fewer than 9 weeks since Prop 22 passed, and California's major employers are already reaping dividends.

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The private-equity-backed grocery titan @Albertsons (@Vons, @pavilions) will fire its unionized delivery drivers ("essential workers") by month's end and replace them with gig workers.

https://t.co/hQ38uxaNfU

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Like their unionized predecessors, these workers will risk fatal covid to keep us from starving. Unlike unionized workers, they will not be entitled to adequate PPE, sick leave, disability benefits, or enough take-home wages to feed their families - even as they feed ours.

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Major costs for Albertson's - vehicles, fuel, insurance - will now be borne by their workforce.

This is the start. It only took NINE WEEKS.

This is coming for your job. Every major employer in California is figuring out how to do an Albertson's on its employees.

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And the gig companies - overflowing with investor cash and desperate to turn a profit - are working with Chambers of Commerce, the GOP, and corporatist Dems, to introduce versions of Prop 22 in every state in the union.

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They'll have friends in the White House. Kamala Harris's brother-in-law Tony West is Uber's head lawyer. If he isn't the sole architect of Prop 22, he was certainly part of the design team. He's been put forward as a potential Biden Attorney General.

https://t.co/KVypUfJP4Z

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If you want to tell Albertsons what you think of their labor practices, here's the number: 877–723–3929.

eof/

More from Cory Doctorow #BLM

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Criti-Hype; Right to Repair is back for 2021; The free market and rent-seeking; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/pXnzoWKJn2

#Pluralistic

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Criti-Hype: Tech bros will settle for "evil genius."

https://t.co/OyiM1vUS8Y

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Right to Repair is back for 2021: Will Apple sabotage this one too?

https://t.co/3gcyEZQWfk

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The free market and rent-seeking: Unauthorized bread and poor doors.

https://t.co/7Ob6AdmkDz

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#10yrsago Diane Duane’s crowdfunded publishing experiment finally concludes https://t.co/qsRnZxiL8b

#10yrsago Inside Sukey, the anti-kettling mobile app https://t.co/puGNKw5XgF

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More from Politics

So let's see a show of hands: how many of you even knew Huber was digging into the Clinton Foundation? While he was assisting Horowitz in his digging into the FISC/Steele Dossier/Fusion GPS/Perkins Coie/DNC/Hillary campaign stuff?


I'm sure Huber is coming to DC *only* to discuss Clinton Foundation things with Meadows and his committee.

He for certain, like, won't be huddling with Horowitz or that new guy, Whitaker while he's in town. That would NEVER HAPPEN. [wink wink wink!] 😉

I just spent a year and a half telling you they will SHOW YOU what they are REALLY DOING when they are READY.

Not before.

No matter how much whining is done about it.

I'm exhausted but it's worth it.

Now you know why they're f**king TERRIFIED of Whitaker, the closer tapped by Trump to come in late for the hysterical fireworks that will ensue soon.

Look who's suddenly fund raising for his legal defen- er, I mean, ha ha - his reelection campaign!

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@franciscodeasis https://t.co/OuQaBRFPu7
Unfortunately the "This work includes the identification of viral sequences in bat samples, and has resulted in the isolation of three bat SARS-related coronaviruses that are now used as reagents to test therapeutics and vaccines." were BEFORE the


chimeric infectious clone grants were there.https://t.co/DAArwFkz6v is in 2017, Rs4231.
https://t.co/UgXygDjYbW is in 2016, RsSHC014 and RsWIV16.
https://t.co/krO69CsJ94 is in 2013, RsWIV1. notice that this is before the beginning of the project

starting in 2016. Also remember that they told about only 3 isolates/live viruses. RsSHC014 is a live infectious clone that is just as alive as those other "Isolates".

P.D. somehow is able to use funds that he have yet recieved yet, and send results and sequences from late 2019 back in time into 2015,2013 and 2016!

https://t.co/4wC7k1Lh54 Ref 3: Why ALL your pangolin samples were PCR negative? to avoid deep sequencing and accidentally reveal Paguma Larvata and Oryctolagus Cuniculus?