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App-Based Work Alliance

Lobby or trade group

Type
Company or group
Role
Lobby or trade group
Updated

The profile

Washington advocacy group formed in November 2020 by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates, the five largest donors to California's Proposition 22, to keep app-based workers classified as independent contractors under federal law.

Identity & role

The App-Based Work Alliance is a Washington-based advocacy group formed by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates. The Intercept described it as "a coalition of gig companies focused on preserving the independent contractor status of their workers." Its spokesperson in 2021 was Whitney Mitchell Brennan. Its stated goal, as Reuters summarized it, was federal labor-law changes that would let workers keep flexible schedules while receiving "more modest benefits than required for employees," such as minimum pay standards, health-care subsidies and accident insurance.

Founding & timing

The five companies formed the Alliance less than two weeks after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Reuters reported; Morning Consult dated its formation to November 2020. Its members had just won in California. On November 3, 2020 voters approved Proposition 22, which kept app-based ride and delivery drivers classified as contractors, with 58.63 percent of the vote. The committees backing it raised $205.7 million, and the five largest donors were the Alliance's five members: Uber ($59.5 million), DoorDash ($52.1 million), Lyft ($49.0 million), Instacart, through its corporate name Maplebear Inc. ($31.6 million), and Postmates ($13.3 million). "Going forward, you'll see us more loudly advocate for new laws like Prop 22," Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said after the vote.

Role in the pandemic-relief story

Gig workers had no unemployment coverage of their own. During the pandemic, Reuters noted, "an act of Congress saw taxpayers foot the unemployment bill for such workers." The companies' benefit proposals still left out unemployment pay, "one of the most costly employer benefits."

The Alliance's main federal fight in 2021 was the PRO Act, which the House passed in March 2021 and which would have let many gig workers unionize. Asked about their lobbying, DoorDash, Lyft and Instacart pointed The Intercept to the Alliance's April 12, 2021 statement. It read in part: "The ABC test provision in the PRO Act would end flexible and independent earning opportunities for millions of app-based workers overnight." The member companies also lobbied in their own names. According to first-quarter 2021 disclosures, Uber spent $540,000, Lyft $430,000, DoorDash $120,000 and Instacart $100,000 lobbying Congress on the PRO Act and related issues, at least $1,190,000 in all, on 32 lobbyists.

After Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Reuters on April 29, 2021 that "a lot of gig workers should be classified as employees," shares of Uber, Lyft and DoorDash fell as much as 12 percent. The Alliance answered that it looked forward to "much-needed discussions about advancing modern policies that protect worker independence and flexibility, while strengthening benefits and protections."

Sources

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