Uber Has a Powerful New Opponent: Elizabeth Warren

“No worker should fall through the cracks.”

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/ZUMA

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Providing Donald Trump a rare moment to recover from her recent social media blitz, Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday turned her attention to the multi-billion dollar workplace known as the gig economy, and warns about the growing number of modern firms that fail to provide workers with their fair share of benefits, not to mention profits.

In a speech titled “Strengthening the Basic Bargain for Workers in the Modern Economy,” that she delivered at the New America foundation’s annual conference, the Massachusetts senator said that while gig economy companies should be lauded for their technological advancements and creativity, these companies actually replicate traditional workplaces by embracing an “outdated benefits model” that ultimately locks low and middle income workers from obtaining true economic security.

“I believe we start with one simple principle: all workers—no matter when they work, where they work, who they work for, whether they pick tomatoes or build rocket ships—all workers should have some basic protections and be able to build some economic security for themselves and their families,” Warren said. “No worker should fall through the cracks.”

Warren went on to propose a number of ways in which these companies can move forward to implement new changes, and even accept future regulatory action.

Her remarks come on the heels of a major class action lawsuit that forced Uber, perhaps the largest gig economy firm valued at an estimated $60 billion, to pay $100 million in lost wages to thousands of drivers who claimed they were wrongly classified as independent contractors—a status that allows companies like the ride-hailing app to avoid providing workers benefits such as health insurance and overtime pay.

“If this country is to have a strong middle class, then we need the policies that will make that possible,” Warren said. “That’s how shared prosperity has been built in the past, and that is our way forward now.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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