Re: <nettime> California passes Prop 22

[Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com>]

Since we are still waiting, time to think a bit more about the platform
capitalists' victory in California.

Essentially, what it allows them to do is to offload many costs as
externalities. Most directly, onto the workers who are denied benefits
and insurance. This allows them to pursue an extremely inefficient model
(taxis as a form of mass transit). Little surprise, this is not just
economically inefficient -- low wages and no profits -- for everyone but
management and investors. There are also massive geo-system
externalities. This model is also ecologically inefficient, so much so
that even "carbon neutral" cars (paid for by low-paid drives) will not
turn things around.

Felix



https://earther.gizmodo.com/prop-22-shows-why-big-tech-is-the-climate-movement-s-ne-1845573939

<...>

Prop 22 is expected to put more cars on the road, which is particularly
concerning because a recent study [1] found that Uber and Lyft were
responsible for about half of San Francisco’s increase in congestion
between 2010 and 2016. Transportation is also the largest contributor to
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Allowing these companies to expand
without giving workers’ the ability to organize is a huge obstacle to
the fight for a just and carbon-free transit sector.

The climate plans rideshare and gig economy companies have put forward
are far from sufficient to meet the scale of the crisis, a crisis that
they will have a larger hand in making worse due to Prop 22. The plans
do nothing about the apps’ wasteful business models, which depend on
workers driving around aimlessly for miles while waiting to pick up
customers. A recent report [2] from Union of Concerned Scientists found
that due to this, car trips from ride-hailing services create nearly 70%
more climate pollution on average than the trips they displace.
Switching to electric vehicles would help, but like fossil fuel firms
attempts to offload the responsibility for climate action onto
consumers, the apps’ pledges put the onus on their drivers to make the
costly switch.

Climate organizers lost this fight against these gig work apps, but then
it won’t be the last one to wage. These companies are becoming some of
the most powerful in the country, and they’re using that power to lobby
for more legislation and ballot measures that protect their interests.
Measures similar to Prop 22 are already in the works in other states.

The climate movement will face an uphill battle to defeat these
measures, but in some ways, it’s well-poised to take up the challenge.
Thanks to the centrality of labor rights in the Green New Deal and some
unions’ shift toward acceptance of climate policy, the overlap between
climate and labor groups’ interests is clearer than ever.



[1] https://www.sfcta.org/projects/tncs-and-congestion
[2] https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/ride-hailing-climate-risks



On 05.11.20 08:56, Felix Stalder wrote:
> While we all wait for the counting to finish (and the law cases to
> start), here's the best article I could find on the major victory for
> the platform capitalists in California, overturning a state-wide labor
> law (AB5) which would have forced them to reclassify most gig-workers as
> employees (with benefits) rather than contractors (without benefits).
> This will likely affect not only the gig economy more widely, but it
> also shows how power is leveraged. Not good. Felix
> 
> 
> 
> UBER AND LYFT HAD AN EDGE IN THE PROP 22 FIGHT: THEIR APPS
> 

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