The gig economy’s dark-money, astroturf “community groups”
Uber and Lyft spent their way into a rep for racial justice.
When CA’s Proposition 22 passed in 2020, it killed the right of gig workers to unionize and it permanently enshrined the practice of worker misclassification: pretending employees are independent contractors, not entitled to health care, overtime, pensions or basic protections.
Uber, Lyft and other “gig” companies spent $205m to pass the ballot initiative, almost as much as was spent on every legislative race in the state — it was the most expensive ballot initiative in American history.
That money was accompanied by some powerful endorsements, including the California NAACP, which struck many observers as deeply strange, given that the most exploited workers in the gig economy are Black.
The situation became clearer when we learned that $95k was funneled to a “consultancy” run by CA NAACP chair to help sell Prop 22. Hoffman resigned shortly thereafter, on news that her firm raked in $1.7m to “consult” on ballot initiatives in 2020.
A new investigative story in The Markup by Dara Kerr and Maddy Varner reveals a vast…
