[Slashdot] - Inside Uber and DoorDash's Push To Win the Most Expensive Ballot Race in California History

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Uber, Lyft and DoorDash are spending tens of millions of dollars and flooding voters with messages in a neck-and-neck battle to preserve their current business model in California. From a report: The companies, along with other gig-economy giants like Postmates and Instacart , have contributed nearly $200 million to persuade voters to approve a ballot measure that would exempt them from a new state law requiring businesses to reclassify contract workers as employees. That amount, the most ever raised for a California ballot question, according to Ballotpedia, suggests how pivotal the vote will be for companies reliant on a labor model in which workers are summoned at the touch of an app. The opposition, which has raised far less -- roughly $19 million, largely from labor unions -- says the companies have flourished on the backs of gig workers without providing them the protections that most employees receive. Victory for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and others would let stand the companies' business models in their home state of 40 million people. If voters reject the Proposition 22 measure, the companies would be compelled to offer their drivers broad employment benefits, such as minimum wage, paid sick leave and unemployment assistance, that would weigh heavily on their already money-losing bottom lines.

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