Gig Workers United say NO to Uber's “Prop-22 North”

TORONTO – Couriers are rallying to reject Uber Canada's announcement that the boss knows best what couriers need. Uber Canada's announcement this morning asks provincial governments to enact Uber's version of workplace reform, which they say would offer a savings-account-style benefits plan and enhanced training, but would exclude the rights and protections that go with employee status.

Brice Sopher says the announcement offers a false choice between flexibility and a living wage. “This is nothing more than a Prop 22 North – to prevent Canadian gig workers from organizing, and to allow Uber to avoid confronting the real problems of dwindling pay and precarity,” says Sopher, a delivery courier.

Proposition 22 was on California state ballots last year and passed. It essentially exempts app-based employers from the law passed earlier in California that gave app-based workers employee status and benefits.

This morning’s announcement comes just weeks after an employee survey that, Uber claims, reinforces their view of what couriers want and need, but was widely rejected by the workers, who say it was an effort to co-opt worker organizing and replace impending unionization with an employer-led model and demands.

“Their skewed, non-transparent study was just the set-up,” says courier Ivan Ostos. “Now they're using its results to say that what workers want is self-funded benefits and increased training without the rights that come with employee status. Why? Because they know that workers have the real solution, which is to unionize, and it scares them.”

“Proposition 22 in California followed an expensive lobbying effort by Silicon Valley to trick voters into thinking they were supporting what's best for workers,” adds Sopher “We saw what happened there,we've learned from it, and we will resist it in Canada. Worker rights are never championed by employers, and Gig Workers United is our best way to have an authentic democratic voice saying what they truly want and need.”

For more information: Gig Workers United - [email protected]

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