Rideshare drivers in Massachusetts can unionize with out being full-time staff

Massachusetts has handed a statewide poll initiative that offers rideshare drivers the chance to unionize whereas remaining unbiased contractors. The initiative was introduced ahead by the Service Workers Worldwide Union and the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Staff. It handed with a slender margin of about 54 p.c of the vote.

The will enable the state’s 70,000 rideshare drivers to kind unions and leverage collective bargaining energy, which isn’t permitted for unbiased contractors underneath the Nationwide Labor Relations Act. These employees can unionize in the event that they obtain signatures from at the least 25 p.c of lively drivers in Massachusetts. The initiative additionally creates a listening to course of in order that drivers for firms equivalent to Lyft and Uber can deliver complaints about unfair work practices to a state board. Nonetheless, the poll initiative doesn’t include language about strike protections. It additionally doesn’t lengthen to meals supply drivers.

Uber and Lyft didn’t actively marketing campaign towards the Massachusetts measure, however they’ve raised considerations in regards to the particular language. Some labor advocates additionally opposed the initiative, cautioning that it may hamper efforts for rideshare drivers to win recognition as full-time staff. “We’re not towards unionization,” Kelly Cobb-Lemire, an organizer with Massachusetts Drivers United, informed . “However we do not really feel this goes far sufficient.”

Unbiased contractors typically usually are not protected by federal or state labor legal guidelines as a result of they don’t seem to be full-time staff. The Massachusetts poll measure may create a precedent for different states to supply unionization choices for gig employees. California has been a battleground for labor protections for gig employees who drive for Uber and Lyft for a number of years. Most just lately, a court docket California drivers to retain unbiased contractor standing.