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"content": "\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bevy of laws on Wednesday aimed at protecting California workers from the threats of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/category/technology\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> in the workplace, guarding against automated job loss and surveillance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The laws prohibit employers from using automated systems to fire or discipline employees — so-called “robo bosses” — as well as from monitoring employees in restrooms. They also restrict the use of AI to read workers’ emotions or collect their neural data.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Democratic governor, who has hinted at a presidential run in 2028, also signed an executive order requiring state agencies to continue to refer to the technology as “artificial intelligence” — instead of “Super Intelligence,” the term President Donald Trump recently ordered federal officials to use.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“AI should expand opportunity — not come at the expense of workers and families,” Newsom said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/30/californias-nation-leading-ai-framework-just-got-stronger-governor-newsom-signs-more-first-in-the-nation-worker-protections-and-more/\">statement\u003c/a>. “As this technology reshapes the workplace, California is putting people at the center.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Labor unions sounded a triumphant note.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12030646\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at the opening of the new OpenAI headquarters in Mission Bay in San Francisco on March 10, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Governor Newsom has shown the country how we can begin to put guardrails on AI at work to ensure human control over this technology, limit surveillance, and put workers first,” said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, in a statement. “California’s workers and our unions have changed the national narrative on how Americans can fight back and win against AI taking over our jobs and workplaces.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nurses also celebrated the enactment of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1979\">AB 1979\u003c/a>, a law that bars health care entities from using AI to replace the clinical judgment of licensed professionals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We stood up and said that A.I. must support, not replace, the clinical judgement of the nurses and other health care professionals who care for our patients,” wrote Sandy Reding, RN and president of California Nurses Association in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nurses-celebrate-historic-victory-as-gov-newsom-signs-landmark-ai-protection-into-law\">press release\u003c/a>. The law also limits AI to an advisory role and extends medical confidentiality protections to health chatbots.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After vetoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">a previous version\u003c/a> of the “robo bosses” legislation last year, Newsom signed a narrower version in \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB947\">SB 947\u003c/a>, which takes effect in July of 2027. Meant to counter the “boss-ware” software surging in popularity, the law requires a human to corroborate firing or disciplinary decisions, and workers must be told when such a system was used.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We need to put a floor and put a marker out there that AI systems really shouldn’t be controlling human society. And this is the one way that it can happen,” said state Sen. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, the bill’s author. “Nobody wants to be fired by a machine.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Notably left out of the SB 947 party: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12094475/uber-lyft-drivers-prepared-to-form-union\">rideshare drivers\u003c/a>, who are classified as independent contractors under Proposition 22. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Rideshare drivers have been living with AI and algorithmic management long before most workers ever heard those terms,” wrote Nicole Moore, president of Rideshare Drivers United. “An algorithm decides what work we get, what we are paid, how our performance is judged, and too often whether we can work at all.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Looking ahead to the day when autonomous vehicles replace human drivers, Moore said, “Our skills and experience have been turned into data that is now helping power autonomous vehicle technology, without drivers being compensated for the value we helped create or having any meaningful say over how that data is used.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Uber, Lyft and the California Chamber of Commerce, but did not hear back by publication time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The laws were signed as the Federal Trade Commission \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ftc-opens-investigation-of-anthropic-and-openai-a317b617\">investigates\u003c/a> San Francisco-based Anthropic and OpenAI to determine whether they misled consumers about potential harms from their technology, according to the \u003cem>Wall Street Journal\u003c/em>. An FTC spokesperson confirmed the investigation but declined to provide details.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS16535_IMG_0443.JPG-scaled-e1764810192572.jpg\" alt=\"A close-up shot of a black vehicle with a pink Lyft sticker and a black-and-white Uber sticker on the left side of its windshield. The vehicle sits idle, waiting to pick up a customer.\" class=\"wp-image-11944379\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A rideshare vehicle with Uber and Lyft stickers displayed on its windshield. (Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the larger context suggests federal lawmakers and the White House have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102152/experts-urge-federal-lawmakers-to-regulate-ai-will-anyone-heed-their-alarm\">ceded the field\u003c/a> of regulation to Silicon Valley companies: Congress has not passed comprehensive federal AI regulations at a time when industry leaders are warning about the technology’s risks. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the start of the president’s second term, DOGE — the short-lived initiative run by Elon Musk — explicitly used algorithmic tools to identify and terminate employees. Probationary workers were fired via identical template letters generated without individual review.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And on Tuesday, Trump announced that top tech leaders signed a voluntary accord to “self-police” AI development. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Newsom criticized Trump’s industry-friendly inaction at an hourlong event with reporters on Wednesday, the governor’s last day to sign or veto bills before he terms out in January.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He also had harsh words specifically for Trump’s self-regulation accord. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That should scare the hell out of everybody,” \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/2105377762823573954?s=20\">Newsom said\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">AI in the workplace: Signed Sept. 30\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>SB 947\u003c/strong> (McNerney): employers can’t rely solely on an automated decision system to discipline or fire workers. A human has to corroborate the decision, and workers have to be told. Takes effect July 1, 2027.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>SB 951\u003c/strong> (Reyes): employers must give notice when AI causes a mass layoff, relocation or termination. The Transparency Coalition reports a 60-day notice when 25% or more of a workforce is displaced. It also directs the EDD to study AI’s effect on hiring and the workforce.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 1331\u003c/strong> (Elhawary): bans workplace surveillance tools in workplace bathrooms.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 1883\u003c/strong> (Bryan): restricts AI-powered workplace surveillance, including tools that infer workers’ emotional states or collect neural data.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 1979\u003c/strong> (Bonta): AI can’t replace the clinical judgment of licensed health care professionals and stays advisory. It also extends medical confidentiality to health chatbots.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">AI in the workplace: Vetoed Sept. 30\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 2656\u003c/strong> (Petrie-Norris): would have required notice to public employees when AI performs work within the scope of their jobs. \u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 2575\u003c/strong> (Ortega): would have barred health care employers from retaliating against nurses and other workers who override AI recommendations they judge unsafe and would have kept AI developers and health care entities from shifting liability for harm caused by their tools onto those workers.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Signed earlier\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SB 1050: disclosure of AI-generated performers\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SB 928: AI can’t replace CSU faculty\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>AB 2148: public school staff must be people\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>AB 1609: a good-faith effort to connect customers to a human within 15 minutes\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bevy of laws on Wednesday aimed at protecting California workers from the threats of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/category/technology\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> in the workplace, guarding against automated job loss and surveillance.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bevy of laws on Wednesday aimed at protecting California workers from the threats of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/category/technology\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> in the workplace, guarding against automated job loss and surveillance.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The laws prohibit employers from using automated systems to fire or discipline employees — so-called “robo bosses” — as well as from monitoring employees in restrooms. They also restrict the use of AI to read workers’ emotions or collect their neural data.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Democratic governor, who has hinted at a presidential run in 2028, also signed an executive order requiring state agencies to continue to refer to the technology as “artificial intelligence” — instead of “Super Intelligence,” the term President Donald Trump recently ordered federal officials to use.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“AI should expand opportunity — not come at the expense of workers and families,” Newsom said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/30/californias-nation-leading-ai-framework-just-got-stronger-governor-newsom-signs-more-first-in-the-nation-worker-protections-and-more/\">statement\u003c/a>. “As this technology reshapes the workplace, California is putting people at the center.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Labor unions sounded a triumphant note.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12030646\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at the opening of the new OpenAI headquarters in Mission Bay in San Francisco on March 10, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Governor Newsom has shown the country how we can begin to put guardrails on AI at work to ensure human control over this technology, limit surveillance, and put workers first,” said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, in a statement. “California’s workers and our unions have changed the national narrative on how Americans can fight back and win against AI taking over our jobs and workplaces.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nurses also celebrated the enactment of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1979\">AB 1979\u003c/a>, a law that bars health care entities from using AI to replace the clinical judgment of licensed professionals.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nurses also celebrated the enactment of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1979\">AB 1979\u003c/a>, a law that bars health care entities from using AI to replace the clinical judgment of licensed professionals.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We stood up and said that A.I. must support, not replace, the clinical judgement of the nurses and other health care professionals who care for our patients,” wrote Sandy Reding, RN and president of California Nurses Association in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nurses-celebrate-historic-victory-as-gov-newsom-signs-landmark-ai-protection-into-law\">press release\u003c/a>. The law also limits AI to an advisory role and extends medical confidentiality protections to health chatbots.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We stood up and said that A.I. must support, not replace, the clinical judgement of the nurses and other health care professionals who care for our patients,” wrote Sandy Reding, RN and president of California Nurses Association in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nurses-celebrate-historic-victory-as-gov-newsom-signs-landmark-ai-protection-into-law\">press release\u003c/a>. The law also limits AI to an advisory role and extends medical confidentiality protections to health chatbots.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After vetoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">a previous version\u003c/a> of the “robo bosses” legislation last year, Newsom signed a narrower version in \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB947\">SB 947\u003c/a>, which takes effect in July of 2027. Meant to counter the “boss-ware” software surging in popularity, the law requires a human to corroborate firing or disciplinary decisions, and workers must be told when such a system was used.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>After vetoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">a previous version\u003c/a> of the “robo bosses” legislation last year, Newsom signed a narrower version in \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB947\">SB 947\u003c/a>, which takes effect in July of 2027. Meant to counter the “boss-ware” software surging in popularity, the law requires a human to corroborate firing or disciplinary decisions, and workers must be told when such a system was used.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We need to put a floor and put a marker out there that AI systems really shouldn’t be controlling human society. And this is the one way that it can happen,” said state Sen. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, the bill’s author. “Nobody wants to be fired by a machine.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We need to put a floor and put a marker out there that AI systems really shouldn’t be controlling human society. And this is the one way that it can happen,” said state Sen. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, the bill’s author. “Nobody wants to be fired by a machine.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Notably left out of the SB 947 party: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12094475/uber-lyft-drivers-prepared-to-form-union\">rideshare drivers\u003c/a>, who are classified as independent contractors under Proposition 22. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Notably left out of the SB 947 party: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12094475/uber-lyft-drivers-prepared-to-form-union\">rideshare drivers\u003c/a>, who are classified as independent contractors under Proposition 22. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Rideshare drivers have been living with AI and algorithmic management long before most workers ever heard those terms,” wrote Nicole Moore, president of Rideshare Drivers United. “An algorithm decides what work we get, what we are paid, how our performance is judged, and too often whether we can work at all.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Rideshare drivers have been living with AI and algorithmic management long before most workers ever heard those terms,” wrote Nicole Moore, president of Rideshare Drivers United. “An algorithm decides what work we get, what we are paid, how our performance is judged, and too often whether we can work at all.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Looking ahead to the day when autonomous vehicles replace human drivers, Moore said, “Our skills and experience have been turned into data that is now helping power autonomous vehicle technology, without drivers being compensated for the value we helped create or having any meaningful say over how that data is used.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Looking ahead to the day when autonomous vehicles replace human drivers, Moore said, “Our skills and experience have been turned into data that is now helping power autonomous vehicle technology, without drivers being compensated for the value we helped create or having any meaningful say over how that data is used.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Uber, Lyft and the California Chamber of Commerce, but did not hear back by publication time.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The laws were signed as the Federal Trade Commission \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ftc-opens-investigation-of-anthropic-and-openai-a317b617\">investigates\u003c/a> San Francisco-based Anthropic and OpenAI to determine whether they misled consumers about potential harms from their technology, according to the \u003cem>Wall Street Journal\u003c/em>. An FTC spokesperson confirmed the investigation but declined to provide details.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The laws were signed as the Federal Trade Commission \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ftc-opens-investigation-of-anthropic-and-openai-a317b617\">investigates\u003c/a> San Francisco-based Anthropic and OpenAI to determine whether they misled consumers about potential harms from their technology, according to the \u003cem>Wall Street Journal\u003c/em>. An FTC spokesperson confirmed the investigation but declined to provide details.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS16535_IMG_0443.JPG-scaled-e1764810192572.jpg\" alt=\"A close-up shot of a black vehicle with a pink Lyft sticker and a black-and-white Uber sticker on the left side of its windshield. The vehicle sits idle, waiting to pick up a customer.\" class=\"wp-image-11944379\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A rideshare vehicle with Uber and Lyft stickers displayed on its windshield.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS16535_IMG_0443.JPG-scaled-e1764810192572.jpg\" alt=\"A close-up shot of a black vehicle with a pink Lyft sticker and a black-and-white Uber sticker on the left side of its windshield. The vehicle sits idle, waiting to pick up a customer.\" class=\"wp-image-11944379\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A rideshare vehicle with Uber and Lyft stickers displayed on its windshield.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the larger context suggests federal lawmakers and the White House have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102152/experts-urge-federal-lawmakers-to-regulate-ai-will-anyone-heed-their-alarm\">ceded the field\u003c/a> of regulation to Silicon Valley companies: Congress has not passed comprehensive federal AI regulations at a time when industry leaders are warning about the technology’s risks. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At the start of the president’s second term, DOGE — the short-lived initiative run by Elon Musk — explicitly used algorithmic tools to identify and terminate employees. Probationary workers were fired via identical template letters generated without individual review.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And on Tuesday, Trump announced that top tech leaders signed a voluntary accord to “self-police” AI development. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Newsom criticized Trump’s industry-friendly inaction at an hourlong event with reporters on Wednesday, the governor’s last day to sign or veto bills before he terms out in January.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“That should scare the hell out of everybody,” \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/2105377762823573954?s=20\">Newsom said\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"SB 947 (McNerney): employers can’t rely solely on an automated decision system to discipline or fire workers. A human has to corroborate the decision, and workers have to be told. Takes effect July 1, 2027.",
"SB 951 (Reyes): employers must give notice when AI causes a mass layoff, relocation or termination. The Transparency Coalition reports a 60-day notice when 25% or more of a workforce is displaced. It also directs the EDD to study AI’s effect on hiring and the workforce.",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>SB 947\u003c/strong> (McNerney): employers can’t rely solely on an automated decision system to discipline or fire workers. A human has to corroborate the decision, and workers have to be told. Takes effect July 1, 2027.\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>SB 951\u003c/strong> (Reyes): employers must give notice when AI causes a mass layoff, relocation or termination. The Transparency Coalition reports a 60-day notice when 25% or more of a workforce is displaced. It also directs the EDD to study AI’s effect on hiring and the workforce.\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 1331\u003c/strong> (Elhawary): bans workplace surveillance tools in workplace bathrooms.\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 1979\u003c/strong> (Bonta): AI can’t replace the clinical judgment of licensed health care professionals and stays advisory. It also extends medical confidentiality to health chatbots.\u003c/li>\n",
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"excerpt": "The package of new labor-backed California laws limits how employers use AI and strengthens worker protections. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bevy of laws on Wednesday aimed at protecting California workers from the threats of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/category/technology\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> in the workplace, guarding against automated job loss and surveillance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The laws prohibit employers from using automated systems to fire or discipline employees — so-called “robo bosses” — as well as from monitoring employees in restrooms. They also restrict the use of AI to read workers’ emotions or collect their neural data.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Democratic governor, who has hinted at a presidential run in 2028, also signed an executive order requiring state agencies to continue to refer to the technology as “artificial intelligence” — instead of “Super Intelligence,” the term President Donald Trump recently ordered federal officials to use.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“AI should expand opportunity — not come at the expense of workers and families,” Newsom said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/30/californias-nation-leading-ai-framework-just-got-stronger-governor-newsom-signs-more-first-in-the-nation-worker-protections-and-more/\">statement\u003c/a>. “As this technology reshapes the workplace, California is putting people at the center.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Labor unions sounded a triumphant note.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12030646\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at the opening of the new OpenAI headquarters in Mission Bay in San Francisco on March 10, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Governor Newsom has shown the country how we can begin to put guardrails on AI at work to ensure human control over this technology, limit surveillance, and put workers first,” said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, in a statement. “California’s workers and our unions have changed the national narrative on how Americans can fight back and win against AI taking over our jobs and workplaces.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nurses also celebrated the enactment of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1979\">AB 1979\u003c/a>, a law that bars health care entities from using AI to replace the clinical judgment of licensed professionals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We stood up and said that A.I. must support, not replace, the clinical judgement of the nurses and other health care professionals who care for our patients,” wrote Sandy Reding, RN and president of California Nurses Association in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nurses-celebrate-historic-victory-as-gov-newsom-signs-landmark-ai-protection-into-law\">press release\u003c/a>. The law also limits AI to an advisory role and extends medical confidentiality protections to health chatbots.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After vetoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">a previous version\u003c/a> of the “robo bosses” legislation last year, Newsom signed a narrower version in \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB947\">SB 947\u003c/a>, which takes effect in July of 2027. Meant to counter the “boss-ware” software surging in popularity, the law requires a human to corroborate firing or disciplinary decisions, and workers must be told when such a system was used.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We need to put a floor and put a marker out there that AI systems really shouldn’t be controlling human society. And this is the one way that it can happen,” said state Sen. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, the bill’s author. “Nobody wants to be fired by a machine.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Notably left out of the SB 947 party: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12094475/uber-lyft-drivers-prepared-to-form-union\">rideshare drivers\u003c/a>, who are classified as independent contractors under Proposition 22. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Rideshare drivers have been living with AI and algorithmic management long before most workers ever heard those terms,” wrote Nicole Moore, president of Rideshare Drivers United. “An algorithm decides what work we get, what we are paid, how our performance is judged, and too often whether we can work at all.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Looking ahead to the day when autonomous vehicles replace human drivers, Moore said, “Our skills and experience have been turned into data that is now helping power autonomous vehicle technology, without drivers being compensated for the value we helped create or having any meaningful say over how that data is used.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED reached out to Uber, Lyft and the California Chamber of Commerce, but did not hear back by publication time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The laws were signed as the Federal Trade Commission \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ftc-opens-investigation-of-anthropic-and-openai-a317b617\">investigates\u003c/a> San Francisco-based Anthropic and OpenAI to determine whether they misled consumers about potential harms from their technology, according to the \u003cem>Wall Street Journal\u003c/em>. An FTC spokesperson confirmed the investigation but declined to provide details.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS16535_IMG_0443.JPG-scaled-e1764810192572.jpg\" alt=\"A close-up shot of a black vehicle with a pink Lyft sticker and a black-and-white Uber sticker on the left side of its windshield. The vehicle sits idle, waiting to pick up a customer.\" class=\"wp-image-11944379\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A rideshare vehicle with Uber and Lyft stickers displayed on its windshield. (Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the larger context suggests federal lawmakers and the White House have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102152/experts-urge-federal-lawmakers-to-regulate-ai-will-anyone-heed-their-alarm\">ceded the field\u003c/a> of regulation to Silicon Valley companies: Congress has not passed comprehensive federal AI regulations at a time when industry leaders are warning about the technology’s risks. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the start of the president’s second term, DOGE — the short-lived initiative run by Elon Musk — explicitly used algorithmic tools to identify and terminate employees. Probationary workers were fired via identical template letters generated without individual review.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And on Tuesday, Trump announced that top tech leaders signed a voluntary accord to “self-police” AI development. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Newsom criticized Trump’s industry-friendly inaction at an hourlong event with reporters on Wednesday, the governor’s last day to sign or veto bills before he terms out in January.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He also had harsh words specifically for Trump’s self-regulation accord. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That should scare the hell out of everybody,” \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/2105377762823573954?s=20\">Newsom said\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">AI in the workplace: Signed Sept. 30\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>SB 947\u003c/strong> (McNerney): employers can’t rely solely on an automated decision system to discipline or fire workers. A human has to corroborate the decision, and workers have to be told. Takes effect July 1, 2027.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>SB 951\u003c/strong> (Reyes): employers must give notice when AI causes a mass layoff, relocation or termination. The Transparency Coalition reports a 60-day notice when 25% or more of a workforce is displaced. It also directs the EDD to study AI’s effect on hiring and the workforce.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 1331\u003c/strong> (Elhawary): bans workplace surveillance tools in workplace bathrooms.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 1883\u003c/strong> (Bryan): restricts AI-powered workplace surveillance, including tools that infer workers’ emotional states or collect neural data.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 1979\u003c/strong> (Bonta): AI can’t replace the clinical judgment of licensed health care professionals and stays advisory. It also extends medical confidentiality to health chatbots.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">AI in the workplace: Vetoed Sept. 30\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 2656\u003c/strong> (Petrie-Norris): would have required notice to public employees when AI performs work within the scope of their jobs. \u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>AB 2575\u003c/strong> (Ortega): would have barred health care employers from retaliating against nurses and other workers who override AI recommendations they judge unsafe and would have kept AI developers and health care entities from shifting liability for harm caused by their tools onto those workers.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Signed earlier\u003c/h3>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SB 1050: disclosure of AI-generated performers\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SB 928: AI can’t replace CSU faculty\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>AB 2148: public school staff must be people\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>AB 1609: a good-faith effort to connect customers to a human within 15 minutes\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of independent contractors for ride-hailing companies in California could be part of a union next month, putting to bed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12057798/california-gives-uber-lyft-drivers-collective-bargaining-rights\">a yearslong struggle for a place at the bargaining table\u003c/a> to fight for better pay and benefits. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The California Gig Workers Union, which represents thousands of app-based drivers in the state, met a required 30% threshold of active drivers who are supportive of the effort, according to the state’s Public Employment Relations Board. Under a state law that went into effect this year, that support sets the stage for state regulators to certify the union within 30 days. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Drivers for ride-hailing giants like Uber and Lyft and other companies are classified as independent contractors and don’t qualify for overtime pay and other protections granted under federal law. However, state lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034860/california-bill-would-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-bargain-collectively\">passed AB 1340 last year\u003c/a>, giving drivers a path to form a union and bargain for protections. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11997574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Members of the Rideshare Drivers United organization protest against Uber and Lyft during a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, on Feb.14, 2024. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>CGWU said it expects the union certification to go through since, according to PERB, “no other driver organization is currently eligible to submit proof of support during [the waiting] period.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If it does, CGWU will become the exclusive bargaining representative for Uber and Lyft drivers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hector Castellanos, who has been driving for Uber and Lyft for about a dozen years, said that would change the lives of thousands of families. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man with a microphone speaks while protestors holding signs rally behind him.\" class=\"wp-image-11928851\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hector Castellanos, an Uber and Lyft driver from Antioch, speaks at a rally to announce the formation of the California Gig Workers Union before Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco on Oct. 12, 2022. (Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s so incredible that we’re fighting for so long and finally we’re certified as a union,” Castellanos said. “Exciting, crying, I mean, it’s been that rollercoaster going up and down.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Castellanos said pay and benefits are the top two things drivers will be looking to bargain about with the companies. Drivers said the share that Lyft and Uber take out of fares — that could otherwise go to them — is too much. Lyft said on its website that it caps its own fees at 30% of a fare, with varying external fees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fight for better driver conditions started long before AB 1340’s passage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rideshare drivers, with organizing help from unions like Service Employees International Union Local 1021, have clashed with Uber and Lyft over the independent contractor designation. In 2020, voters across the state approved a measure known as Proposition 22 that confirmed drivers’ classification as contractors instead of employees, leaving them without healthcare and other benefits. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Castellanos was one of the plaintiffs who appealed the measure, calling it unconstitutional. The California Supreme Court upheld the measure in 2024. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now, the companies say they look forward to engaging with the drivers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>CJ Macklin, a spokesperson for Lyft, said it was committed to doing so in good faith and focused on keeping the service dependable for users. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ramona Prieto, head of Uber public policy and communications in the Western U.S., said the certification was the next step in what she called the “historic compromise” of AB 1340 that gave drivers a path to representation “while preserving the independence and flexibility they’ve consistently said they value most.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The California Gig Workers Union said that if certified, it would be the largest union made up of gig drivers in the world. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/fjhabvala\">\u003cem>Farida Jhabvala Romero \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>CGWU said it expects the union certification to go through since, according to PERB, “no other driver organization is currently eligible to submit proof of support during [the waiting] period.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Hector Castellanos, who has been driving for Uber and Lyft for about a dozen years, said that would change the lives of thousands of families. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s so incredible that we’re fighting for so long and finally we’re certified as a union,” Castellanos said. “Exciting, crying, I mean, it’s been that rollercoaster going up and down.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Castellanos said pay and benefits are the top two things drivers will be looking to bargain about with the companies. Drivers said the share that Lyft and Uber take out of fares — that could otherwise go to them — is too much. Lyft said on its website that it caps its own fees at 30% of a fare, with varying external fees.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The fight for better driver conditions started long before AB 1340’s passage.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rideshare drivers, with organizing help from unions like Service Employees International Union Local 1021, have clashed with Uber and Lyft over the independent contractor designation. In 2020, voters across the state approved a measure known as Proposition 22 that confirmed drivers’ classification as contractors instead of employees, leaving them without healthcare and other benefits. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Castellanos was one of the plaintiffs who appealed the measure, calling it unconstitutional. The California Supreme Court upheld the measure in 2024. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ramona Prieto, head of Uber public policy and communications in the Western U.S., said the certification was the next step in what she called the “historic compromise” of AB 1340 that gave drivers a path to representation “while preserving the independence and flexibility they’ve consistently said they value most.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/fjhabvala\">\u003cem>Farida Jhabvala Romero \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of independent contractors for ride-hailing companies in California could be part of a union next month, putting to bed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12057798/california-gives-uber-lyft-drivers-collective-bargaining-rights\">a yearslong struggle for a place at the bargaining table\u003c/a> to fight for better pay and benefits. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The California Gig Workers Union, which represents thousands of app-based drivers in the state, met a required 30% threshold of active drivers who are supportive of the effort, according to the state’s Public Employment Relations Board. Under a state law that went into effect this year, that support sets the stage for state regulators to certify the union within 30 days. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Drivers for ride-hailing giants like Uber and Lyft and other companies are classified as independent contractors and don’t qualify for overtime pay and other protections granted under federal law. However, state lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034860/california-bill-would-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-bargain-collectively\">passed AB 1340 last year\u003c/a>, giving drivers a path to form a union and bargain for protections. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11997574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Members of the Rideshare Drivers United organization protest against Uber and Lyft during a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, on Feb.14, 2024. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>CGWU said it expects the union certification to go through since, according to PERB, “no other driver organization is currently eligible to submit proof of support during [the waiting] period.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If it does, CGWU will become the exclusive bargaining representative for Uber and Lyft drivers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hector Castellanos, who has been driving for Uber and Lyft for about a dozen years, said that would change the lives of thousands of families. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man with a microphone speaks while protestors holding signs rally behind him.\" class=\"wp-image-11928851\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59361_IMG_5929-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hector Castellanos, an Uber and Lyft driver from Antioch, speaks at a rally to announce the formation of the California Gig Workers Union before Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco on Oct. 12, 2022. (Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s so incredible that we’re fighting for so long and finally we’re certified as a union,” Castellanos said. “Exciting, crying, I mean, it’s been that rollercoaster going up and down.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Castellanos said pay and benefits are the top two things drivers will be looking to bargain about with the companies. Drivers said the share that Lyft and Uber take out of fares — that could otherwise go to them — is too much. Lyft said on its website that it caps its own fees at 30% of a fare, with varying external fees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fight for better driver conditions started long before AB 1340’s passage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rideshare drivers, with organizing help from unions like Service Employees International Union Local 1021, have clashed with Uber and Lyft over the independent contractor designation. In 2020, voters across the state approved a measure known as Proposition 22 that confirmed drivers’ classification as contractors instead of employees, leaving them without healthcare and other benefits. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Castellanos was one of the plaintiffs who appealed the measure, calling it unconstitutional. The California Supreme Court upheld the measure in 2024. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now, the companies say they look forward to engaging with the drivers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>CJ Macklin, a spokesperson for Lyft, said it was committed to doing so in good faith and focused on keeping the service dependable for users. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ramona Prieto, head of Uber public policy and communications in the Western U.S., said the certification was the next step in what she called the “historic compromise” of AB 1340 that gave drivers a path to representation “while preserving the independence and flexibility they’ve consistently said they value most.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The California Gig Workers Union said that if certified, it would be the largest union made up of gig drivers in the world. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/fjhabvala\">\u003cem>Farida Jhabvala Romero \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "uber-violated-california-gig-worker-law-rideshare-drivers-group-says-in-new-lawsuit",
"title": "Uber Violated California Gig-Worker Law, Rideshare Drivers Group Says in New Lawsuit",
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"headTitle": "Uber Violated California Gig-Worker Law, Rideshare Drivers Group Says in New Lawsuit | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A ride-hail driver organization alleged \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uber\">Uber\u003c/a> broke a California gig-worker law by failing to provide terminated drivers enough of a recourse to challenge account deactivations, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in San Francisco. If successful, the complaint could open a way for workers in the industry to claim additional rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Approved by voters in 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11843123/prop-22-explained-why-gig-companies-are-spending-huge-money-on-an-unprecedented-measure\">Proposition 22\u003c/a> gave Uber a big win, allowing the company to classify its drivers as independent contractors — who are often cheaper to hire and easier to fire than employees. But attorneys for Rideshare Drivers United, which represents about 20,000 app-based drivers statewide, contend Uber terminated thousands of them without an appeals process required by that law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uber has not held up its end of the bargain,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney for the group. “It has not complied with Prop. 22, and as a result, it should not get the benefit of Prop. 22, meaning that Uber should not be able to claim that the drivers are independent contractors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An Uber spokesperson rejected the allegations, slamming the lawsuit as a “publicity stunt” that the company will fight in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legal challenge represents the latest attempt in a years-long battle by gig workers to gain more labor protections. Independent contractors have more flexibility on the job, but lack employee rights such as overtime pay, unemployment insurance benefits and expense reimbursements. If the state court grants Rideshare Drivers United’s request to bar Uber from treating its drivers as independent contractors, they could then be entitled to employee protections, Liss-Riordan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910763\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/yes2-scaled-e1776791757748.jpg\" alt='A woman wearing sunglasses drives a car while holding a sign that says: \"Lyft and Uber we see you profiting off our back!\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rideshare drivers protest outside Uber’s former headquarters on Market Street in downtown San Francisco on Aug. 27, 2019. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Gig Workers Rising)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The most \u003ca href=\"https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/driver-app/deactivation-review/\">common reasons\u003c/a> drivers lose access to their accounts are an expired document or a background check issue, according to Uber. The company said it provides drivers with multiple channels to raise concerns, request reviews of deactivations, and provide evidence to support their case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a baseless lawsuit by an opportunistic trial lawyer seeking to overturn Proposition 22 and the will of California voters,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. “Uber complies with Prop 22, including providing drivers with clear processes to appeal deactivations, raise concerns and request reviews, while delivering guaranteed earnings, healthcare support, and the flexibility drivers value.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference on the steps of the California Supreme Court building near Civic Center Plaza, several terminated drivers said Uber unfairly cut them off the platform, without sufficient explanation or a meaningful way to challenge the decision. They said they tried calling the company and interacting with its chatbots, to no avail.[aside postID=news_12057798 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-2003719181-1020x680.jpg']“It seems like it was nothing but a copy and paste response,” said Devins Baker, 36, who said he was deactivated the week before Christmas in 2024 after driving for Uber for years. “No matter what I sent, even going in person, just seems like they had already made a decision even prior to my appeal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker, an Oakland resident, said suddenly losing his Uber driver job left him scrambling to find another way to make money, so he could keep his housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The process actually has been very much of a headache,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Bay Area drivers with high ratings and years of experience said Uber account deactivations left them struggling to make ends meet. Mirwais Noory, a father of four living in Antioch, said he moved his family from one house to another because they couldn’t afford the rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since his termination in November 2024, he has worked as a security guard and part-time rideshare driver for Lyft, he said, but still owes thousands of dollars in credit card debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It affected me hugely because I’m the only one making money in my family,” said Noory, 38. “It just turned my situation upside down … and basically, there was no accountability from Uber.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A ride-hail driver organization alleged \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uber\">Uber\u003c/a> broke a California gig-worker law by failing to provide terminated drivers enough of a recourse to challenge account deactivations, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in San Francisco. If successful, the complaint could open a way for workers in the industry to claim additional rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Approved by voters in 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11843123/prop-22-explained-why-gig-companies-are-spending-huge-money-on-an-unprecedented-measure\">Proposition 22\u003c/a> gave Uber a big win, allowing the company to classify its drivers as independent contractors — who are often cheaper to hire and easier to fire than employees. But attorneys for Rideshare Drivers United, which represents about 20,000 app-based drivers statewide, contend Uber terminated thousands of them without an appeals process required by that law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uber has not held up its end of the bargain,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney for the group. “It has not complied with Prop. 22, and as a result, it should not get the benefit of Prop. 22, meaning that Uber should not be able to claim that the drivers are independent contractors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An Uber spokesperson rejected the allegations, slamming the lawsuit as a “publicity stunt” that the company will fight in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legal challenge represents the latest attempt in a years-long battle by gig workers to gain more labor protections. Independent contractors have more flexibility on the job, but lack employee rights such as overtime pay, unemployment insurance benefits and expense reimbursements. If the state court grants Rideshare Drivers United’s request to bar Uber from treating its drivers as independent contractors, they could then be entitled to employee protections, Liss-Riordan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910763\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/yes2-scaled-e1776791757748.jpg\" alt='A woman wearing sunglasses drives a car while holding a sign that says: \"Lyft and Uber we see you profiting off our back!\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rideshare drivers protest outside Uber’s former headquarters on Market Street in downtown San Francisco on Aug. 27, 2019. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Gig Workers Rising)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The most \u003ca href=\"https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/driver-app/deactivation-review/\">common reasons\u003c/a> drivers lose access to their accounts are an expired document or a background check issue, according to Uber. The company said it provides drivers with multiple channels to raise concerns, request reviews of deactivations, and provide evidence to support their case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a baseless lawsuit by an opportunistic trial lawyer seeking to overturn Proposition 22 and the will of California voters,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. “Uber complies with Prop 22, including providing drivers with clear processes to appeal deactivations, raise concerns and request reviews, while delivering guaranteed earnings, healthcare support, and the flexibility drivers value.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference on the steps of the California Supreme Court building near Civic Center Plaza, several terminated drivers said Uber unfairly cut them off the platform, without sufficient explanation or a meaningful way to challenge the decision. They said they tried calling the company and interacting with its chatbots, to no avail.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It seems like it was nothing but a copy and paste response,” said Devins Baker, 36, who said he was deactivated the week before Christmas in 2024 after driving for Uber for years. “No matter what I sent, even going in person, just seems like they had already made a decision even prior to my appeal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker, an Oakland resident, said suddenly losing his Uber driver job left him scrambling to find another way to make money, so he could keep his housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The process actually has been very much of a headache,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other Bay Area drivers with high ratings and years of experience said Uber account deactivations left them struggling to make ends meet. Mirwais Noory, a father of four living in Antioch, said he moved his family from one house to another because they couldn’t afford the rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since his termination in November 2024, he has worked as a security guard and part-time rideshare driver for Lyft, he said, but still owes thousands of dollars in credit card debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It affected me hugely because I’m the only one making money in my family,” said Noory, 38. “It just turned my situation upside down … and basically, there was no accountability from Uber.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "waymo-uber-lyft-to-expand-on-sfs-market-street-despite-pushback-from-transit-groups",
"title": "Waymo, Uber, Lyft to Expand on SF’s Market Street, Despite Pushback From Transit Groups",
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"content": "\u003cp>Ride-hailing companies will be allowed to serve riders on San Francisco’s Market Street 24 hours a day starting later this month, despite pleas from safe streets activists \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053305/advocates-warn-of-dangerous-and-chaotic-market-st-as-it-reopens-to-some-cars\">to return to a car-free roadway\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waymo and select Uber and Lyft vehicles are set to enter the third and final phase of a pilot program to allow the companies to drop off and pick up passengers on the road that’s been shuttered to cars since 2020, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Director Julie Kirschbaum told the organization’s Board of Directors Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So far, activity has been fairly limited, and importantly, there have been no detrimental outcomes to our key transportation metrics,” Kirschbaum said. “Based on their findings, I believe this is a good time to shift to the next stage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August, the city allowed Waymo, Lyft and Uber Black cars to begin dropping off and picking up riders at seven loading bays along a two-mile stretch of Market Street during limited hours, in accordance with city policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commercial vehicles have not been legally obligated to stay off the road under SFMTA traffic regulations, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035348/mayor-lurie-allows-waymo-on-sfs-car-free-market-street\">Waymo confirmed in April that it had\u003c/a> voluntarily refrained from operating there until the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Uber and Lyft driver drops off a customer in San Francisco’s downtown neighborhood on Aug. 31, 2015. \u003ccite>(Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Market Street had been completely car-free since January 2020, after more than a decade of advocacy from biking, pedestrian and transit supporters. The move was part of the citywide “Better Market Street” \u003ca href=\"https://bettermarketstreetsf.org/about.html\">proposal\u003c/a>, which aimed to transform the city’s central roadway to “connect the City’s Civic Center with cultural, social, convention, tourism, and retail destinations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mayor Daniel Lurie has said that reopening Market Street to some ride-hailing cars was key to his plan for downtown revitalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Market Street corridor is key to our city’s recovery, and by thoughtfully expanding transportation options, we are going to bring residents and visitors back to enjoy everything Market Street has to offer,” he said in a statement when the pilot launched in August. “We are identifying the tools to get people back to our theaters, hotels, and restaurants, and drive San Francisco’s comeback.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past three months, Waymo has been allowed to pick up and drop off passengers at seven locations between Fifth and Eighth streets between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and overnight from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. They’ve had permission to drive on the strip between Van Ness Avenue and Steuart Street.[aside postID=news_12063805 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/WaymoSFGetty.jpg']Uber and Lyft Black — or premium line — cars have been allowed to operate at those same locations during the evening and night hours, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, Jenny Delumo with SFMTA’s Streets Division said there’s been virtually no impact on travel time along Market, and no decrease in Muni ridership or bike use. She did note, however, that some bikers and pedestrians have raised concerns about the vehicles’ return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kirschbaum said that SFMTA will continue monitoring impacts as companies scale up their operations. The agency plans to return to the board of directors in mid-2026 with a full evaluation of the pilot program and recommendations for future vehicle access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Mid Market Community Benefits District, a nonprofit that promotes local businesses, praised the rideshare expansion and asked SFMTA to reopen Market Street to all traffic, safe street advocacy groups are pushing for the city to reverse course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Christopher White said the organization’s thousand members are feeling the impact of a more crowded roadway during public comment at SFMTA’s meeting on Tuesday. He also questioned the value of opening the road, claiming that the ride-hailing apps have continued to avoid drop-offs and pick-ups because the seven loading bays are often full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944379\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11944379 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS16535_IMG_0443.JPG-scaled-e1764810192572.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup shot of a black vehicle with a pink Lyft sticker and a black and white Uber sticker on the left side of its windshield. The vehicle sits idle, waiting to pick up a customer.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco Transit officials greenlit an expansion of rideshare operations to 24-hour-a-day service on San Francisco’s downtown Market Street. \u003ccite>(Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the same time, though, he said the expansion has led to “more private vehicles illegally driving on Market Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And who can blame them, when to all appearances, Market Street is back open to cars?” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walk SF Executive Director Jodie Medeiros urged SFMTA to adopt its own community advisory committee’s motion, presented last month, to close the loophole in city policy that allows commercial vehicles to operate. The committee recommended limiting commercial operations to just goods deliveries to businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t go back to a dangerous and chaotic Market Street,” she said. “More autonomous vehicle companies, including Tesla, are coming to San Francisco streets and will bring thousands more trips every day. And they’ll want, or just take, the access that Waymo is getting now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it becomes a dangerous, congested mess again, it is going to seriously harm transit service and safety, and it certainly will not help the economic recovery of downtown,” she continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ride-hailing companies will be allowed to serve riders on San Francisco’s Market Street 24 hours a day starting later this month, despite pleas from safe streets activists \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053305/advocates-warn-of-dangerous-and-chaotic-market-st-as-it-reopens-to-some-cars\">to return to a car-free roadway\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waymo and select Uber and Lyft vehicles are set to enter the third and final phase of a pilot program to allow the companies to drop off and pick up passengers on the road that’s been shuttered to cars since 2020, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Director Julie Kirschbaum told the organization’s Board of Directors Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So far, activity has been fairly limited, and importantly, there have been no detrimental outcomes to our key transportation metrics,” Kirschbaum said. “Based on their findings, I believe this is a good time to shift to the next stage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August, the city allowed Waymo, Lyft and Uber Black cars to begin dropping off and picking up riders at seven loading bays along a two-mile stretch of Market Street during limited hours, in accordance with city policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commercial vehicles have not been legally obligated to stay off the road under SFMTA traffic regulations, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035348/mayor-lurie-allows-waymo-on-sfs-car-free-market-street\">Waymo confirmed in April that it had\u003c/a> voluntarily refrained from operating there until the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Uber and Lyft driver drops off a customer in San Francisco’s downtown neighborhood on Aug. 31, 2015. \u003ccite>(Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Market Street had been completely car-free since January 2020, after more than a decade of advocacy from biking, pedestrian and transit supporters. The move was part of the citywide “Better Market Street” \u003ca href=\"https://bettermarketstreetsf.org/about.html\">proposal\u003c/a>, which aimed to transform the city’s central roadway to “connect the City’s Civic Center with cultural, social, convention, tourism, and retail destinations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mayor Daniel Lurie has said that reopening Market Street to some ride-hailing cars was key to his plan for downtown revitalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Market Street corridor is key to our city’s recovery, and by thoughtfully expanding transportation options, we are going to bring residents and visitors back to enjoy everything Market Street has to offer,” he said in a statement when the pilot launched in August. “We are identifying the tools to get people back to our theaters, hotels, and restaurants, and drive San Francisco’s comeback.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past three months, Waymo has been allowed to pick up and drop off passengers at seven locations between Fifth and Eighth streets between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and overnight from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. They’ve had permission to drive on the strip between Van Ness Avenue and Steuart Street.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Uber and Lyft Black — or premium line — cars have been allowed to operate at those same locations during the evening and night hours, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, Jenny Delumo with SFMTA’s Streets Division said there’s been virtually no impact on travel time along Market, and no decrease in Muni ridership or bike use. She did note, however, that some bikers and pedestrians have raised concerns about the vehicles’ return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kirschbaum said that SFMTA will continue monitoring impacts as companies scale up their operations. The agency plans to return to the board of directors in mid-2026 with a full evaluation of the pilot program and recommendations for future vehicle access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Mid Market Community Benefits District, a nonprofit that promotes local businesses, praised the rideshare expansion and asked SFMTA to reopen Market Street to all traffic, safe street advocacy groups are pushing for the city to reverse course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Christopher White said the organization’s thousand members are feeling the impact of a more crowded roadway during public comment at SFMTA’s meeting on Tuesday. He also questioned the value of opening the road, claiming that the ride-hailing apps have continued to avoid drop-offs and pick-ups because the seven loading bays are often full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11944379\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11944379 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS16535_IMG_0443.JPG-scaled-e1764810192572.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup shot of a black vehicle with a pink Lyft sticker and a black and white Uber sticker on the left side of its windshield. The vehicle sits idle, waiting to pick up a customer.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco Transit officials greenlit an expansion of rideshare operations to 24-hour-a-day service on San Francisco’s downtown Market Street. \u003ccite>(Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the same time, though, he said the expansion has led to “more private vehicles illegally driving on Market Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And who can blame them, when to all appearances, Market Street is back open to cars?” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walk SF Executive Director Jodie Medeiros urged SFMTA to adopt its own community advisory committee’s motion, presented last month, to close the loophole in city policy that allows commercial vehicles to operate. The committee recommended limiting commercial operations to just goods deliveries to businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t go back to a dangerous and chaotic Market Street,” she said. “More autonomous vehicle companies, including Tesla, are coming to San Francisco streets and will bring thousands more trips every day. And they’ll want, or just take, the access that Waymo is getting now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it becomes a dangerous, congested mess again, it is going to seriously harm transit service and safety, and it certainly will not help the economic recovery of downtown,” she continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>State labor regulators have found Costco, the membership-only wholesale retailer, liable for the underpayment of dozens of delivery drivers in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-diego\">San Diego\u003c/a> region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner jointly cited Costco Wholesale Corporation, a delivery contractor and a trucking subcontractor, for nearly $870,000, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2025/2025-111.html\">announcement\u003c/a> Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigators found Mega Nice Trucking LLC misclassified 58 drivers as independent contractors, denying them employee rights such as minimum wage, overtime pay and other benefits for a two-year period between August 2022 and September 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also held Costco and contractor Ryder Last Mile Inc. equally responsible as employers for the alleged wage theft, because they closely monitored the drivers’ performance, scheduled deliveries and mandated uniforms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Companies that exert control over workers cannot evade responsibility by hiding behind layers of subcontracting,” Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. “Misclassification strips workers of their rights and protections, and employers who direct and control their workforce are responsible for paying all wages owed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Costco, Ryder Last Mile and Mega Nice Trucking did not respond to requests for comment. All three companies have appealed the citation. That process will determine the amount each employer may ultimately pay, according to an agency spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10770963\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10770963 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco.jpg\" alt=\"A Costco store\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1283\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-1440x962.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-1180x789.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-960x642.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Costco, along with a delivery contractor and a trucking subcontractor, was jointly cited for nearly $870,000 by the California Labor Commissioner, officials announced Thursday. \u003ccite>(Mike Mozart via Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://www.everee.com/blog/ab5-abc-test/\">state law\u003c/a>, most drivers for trucking and logistics companies should be considered employees, as their labor is engaged in the core activity of the firm’s operations. (App-based companies such as Uber and DoorDash carved out an exemption through a 2020 voter-approved ballot measure.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, tens of thousands of truck and delivery drivers in California could be misclassified as independent contractors because it’s cheaper for the hiring entity, said Steve Viscelli, a sociologist and industry expert at the University of Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employers do not have to pay for an independent contractor’s sick days, workers’ compensation insurance or share of social security taxes. In trucking, the costs of fuel, insurance costs and vehicle repairs are also passed on to these workers, Viscelli said, which further decreases their earnings.[aside postID=news_12060714 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“A lot of times, you can see drivers who are working for really subpar wages. And that can add up to big savings for the trucking carrier and for the companies that are shipping products with them,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One in five U.S. Costco warehouses is located in California. The international corporation, headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, posted a \u003ca href=\"https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2025/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-Year-2025-Operating-Results/default.aspx\">net income\u003c/a> of $8 billion this year, up from $7.4 billion in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement began its investigation in July 2024 after two former Mega Nice Trucking employees complained of misclassification and wage theft. The agency said the company, which had been penalized for similar violations in the past, paid drivers a flat daily rate and falsified payroll records to conceal ongoing violations. Martin Medina, Mega Nice Trucking’s CEO, was also named as an individual in the $868,000 citation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 75% of the proposed penalties would be payable to the impacted workers, according to the agency. But restitution is often elusive, as the Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business\">plagued with delays\u003c/a> and understaffing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small companies in trucking, construction and other industries that are cited for wage theft often close down and resurface with a different name to avoid paying penalties, according to experts. Holding large employers accountable for violations is critical to make workers’ whole and promote compliance, said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of the laws in California, you can’t plead ignorance because you just keep outsourcing the work. So Costco knew and should have known that those workers were misclassified,” she said. “We need to hold every [guilty] company accountable because they know what they are supposed to be doing and they just try to get by.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner also cited Medina and Mega Nice Trucking $520,000 in a separate case for alleged violations from July 2021 through Sept. 2024, impacting 38 workers in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Misclassification costs workers and the social security net thousands of dollars per year. Light truck drivers, who drive small trucks or vans wrongfully considered independent contractors in California, lose as much as $26,000 in annual compensation, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/misclassifying-workers-2025-update/\">estimates\u003c/a> by the Employment Policy Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State labor regulators have found Costco, the membership-only wholesale retailer, liable for the underpayment of dozens of delivery drivers in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-diego\">San Diego\u003c/a> region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner jointly cited Costco Wholesale Corporation, a delivery contractor and a trucking subcontractor, for nearly $870,000, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2025/2025-111.html\">announcement\u003c/a> Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigators found Mega Nice Trucking LLC misclassified 58 drivers as independent contractors, denying them employee rights such as minimum wage, overtime pay and other benefits for a two-year period between August 2022 and September 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also held Costco and contractor Ryder Last Mile Inc. equally responsible as employers for the alleged wage theft, because they closely monitored the drivers’ performance, scheduled deliveries and mandated uniforms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Companies that exert control over workers cannot evade responsibility by hiding behind layers of subcontracting,” Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. “Misclassification strips workers of their rights and protections, and employers who direct and control their workforce are responsible for paying all wages owed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Costco, Ryder Last Mile and Mega Nice Trucking did not respond to requests for comment. All three companies have appealed the citation. That process will determine the amount each employer may ultimately pay, according to an agency spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10770963\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10770963 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco.jpg\" alt=\"A Costco store\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1283\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-1440x962.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-1180x789.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-960x642.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Costco, along with a delivery contractor and a trucking subcontractor, was jointly cited for nearly $870,000 by the California Labor Commissioner, officials announced Thursday. \u003ccite>(Mike Mozart via Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://www.everee.com/blog/ab5-abc-test/\">state law\u003c/a>, most drivers for trucking and logistics companies should be considered employees, as their labor is engaged in the core activity of the firm’s operations. (App-based companies such as Uber and DoorDash carved out an exemption through a 2020 voter-approved ballot measure.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, tens of thousands of truck and delivery drivers in California could be misclassified as independent contractors because it’s cheaper for the hiring entity, said Steve Viscelli, a sociologist and industry expert at the University of Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employers do not have to pay for an independent contractor’s sick days, workers’ compensation insurance or share of social security taxes. In trucking, the costs of fuel, insurance costs and vehicle repairs are also passed on to these workers, Viscelli said, which further decreases their earnings.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“A lot of times, you can see drivers who are working for really subpar wages. And that can add up to big savings for the trucking carrier and for the companies that are shipping products with them,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One in five U.S. Costco warehouses is located in California. The international corporation, headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, posted a \u003ca href=\"https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2025/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-Year-2025-Operating-Results/default.aspx\">net income\u003c/a> of $8 billion this year, up from $7.4 billion in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement began its investigation in July 2024 after two former Mega Nice Trucking employees complained of misclassification and wage theft. The agency said the company, which had been penalized for similar violations in the past, paid drivers a flat daily rate and falsified payroll records to conceal ongoing violations. Martin Medina, Mega Nice Trucking’s CEO, was also named as an individual in the $868,000 citation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 75% of the proposed penalties would be payable to the impacted workers, according to the agency. But restitution is often elusive, as the Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business\">plagued with delays\u003c/a> and understaffing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small companies in trucking, construction and other industries that are cited for wage theft often close down and resurface with a different name to avoid paying penalties, according to experts. Holding large employers accountable for violations is critical to make workers’ whole and promote compliance, said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of the laws in California, you can’t plead ignorance because you just keep outsourcing the work. So Costco knew and should have known that those workers were misclassified,” she said. “We need to hold every [guilty] company accountable because they know what they are supposed to be doing and they just try to get by.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner also cited Medina and Mega Nice Trucking $520,000 in a separate case for alleged violations from July 2021 through Sept. 2024, impacting 38 workers in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Misclassification costs workers and the social security net thousands of dollars per year. Light truck drivers, who drive small trucks or vans wrongfully considered independent contractors in California, lose as much as $26,000 in annual compensation, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/misclassifying-workers-2025-update/\">estimates\u003c/a> by the Employment Policy Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "SNAP Benefits, Uber Enters the Robotaxi Race, and the Condor Comeback",
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"content": "\u003cp>In this October edition of The Bay’s monthly news roundup, we discuss the impact of the federal government shutdown on hunger in the Bay Area, and how local governments are responding. We also discuss Uber’s plans to enter the driverless vehicle market, and how the California condor is making a comeback after near-extinction. \u003cspan data-slate-fragment=\"JTVCJTdCJTIydHlwZSUyMiUzQSUyMnBhcmFncmFwaCUyMiUyQyUyMmNoaWxkcmVuJTIyJTNBJTVCJTdCJTIydGV4dCUyMiUzQSUyMlBsdXMlMkMlMjB3ZSUyMHBheSUyMHRyaWJ1dGUlMjB0byUyMEtRRUQlMjB0cmFuc3BvcnRhdGlvbiUyMGVkaXRvciUyMERhbiUyMEJyZWtrZSUyQyUyMHdobyUyMGlzJTIwcmV0aXJpbmclMjBhZnRlciUyMG5lYXJseSUyMDUwJTIweWVhcnMlMjBpbiUyMEJheSUyMEFyZWElMjBqb3VybmFsaXNtLiUyMiU3RCU1RCU3RCU1RA==\">Plus, we pay tribute to KQED transportation editor Dan Brekke, who is retiring after nearly 50 years in Bay Area journalism.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC5978954594\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://richmondside.org/2025/10/29/contra-costa-food-bank-calfresh-snap-benefit-cuts/\">Contra Costa County plans to give CalFresh recipients food money if SNAP is paused\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062034/san-francisco-will-cover-full-snap-benefits-for-november-amid-federal-shutdown\">San Francisco Will Cover SNAP Benefits for November Amid Federal Shutdown\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13982957/snap-calfresh-ebt-november-shutdown-meals-food-assistance-san-francisco-bay-area\">With SNAP Benefits Delayed, Restaurants Step Up to Feed Bay Area Families\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/news/808743/uber-lucid-nuro-robotaxi-san-francisco-2026\">Uber will challenge Waymo’s robotaxi dominance in San Francisco\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/10/20/for-a-century-they-were-gone-but-california-condors-are-making-a-comeback-in-these-parts-of-the-bay-area/?campaign=sjmnbreakingnews&utm_email=A4A5B403457285D525DA14E7D1&active=no&lctg=A4A5B403457285D525DA14E7D1\">For a century, they were gone. But California condors are making a comeback in these parts of the Bay Area\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:02] I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to The Bay local news to keep you rooted and welcome to our October news roundup. I’m joined today by The Bay senior editor, Alan Montecillo. What’s up, Alan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:00:14] Hey, good morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:15] And our very, very special guest this month, transportation editor Dan Brekke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:00:22] Hi Ericka.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:23] Hi! Happy Halloween!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:00:26] Is it Halloween already? Oh yeah, it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:28] Yeah, spooky season. Actually, we wanted to have you on as our guest for this month because you are retiring. And I want to take it back a little bit because I feel like for longtime listeners of The Bay, they’re probably familiar with you, but maybe not so much of your backstory. Can you talk a little about how long you’ve been a reporter here in the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:00:52] In the Bay Area, I’ve been doing some media or other since about 1980. And I am going to include the Daily Cal. Daily Cal, of course, is the student newspaper at UC Berkeley. And before that, I had been lucky enough to actually get a newsroom job in Chicago, my hometown, right out of high school. And so I was impressionable. And the impression that the newsroom laid down on me was this is a really fun thing to do. You wanna keep coming back and doing this. And here we are today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:27] 50 years later. Yeah on your last day at KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:32] Listeners of the show know you for your knowledge of transportation, especially public transit. Have you been covering transit this whole time or how did your passion for transit begin?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:01:42] It’s always been present in my life. I grew up in the suburbs mostly in Chicago, a town called Park Forest. Even out there in the suburb, we had a bus line, South Suburban Safeway Lines, and I believe that it cost us a nickel. And that first job I had that I was talking about, I got to commute all the way to the other end in downtown Chicago. I mean, I thought that was the greatest thing ever, that you didn’t have to drive. And you could sleep. And then it just kind of grew from there. First time I came out to the Bay Area in 1973 was on Amtrak, you know, landed at the 16th Street Station in West Oakland, and that was really cool. And yeah, so the rest is history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:02:31] So, I mean, you’ve covered the Bay Area for a long time. Are there any Bay Area stories you’ve covered that really stand out to you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:02:39] Two of the epic occurrences in the Bay Area during my career, one was the earthquake in 1989, which was a terribly traumatic incident. And then just two years later, almost to the day, there was a terrible fire in the Oakland Hills. And yeah, if you worked in a daily newsroom, as I did then, I was at the San Francisco Examiner with a bunch of really good people. You find yourself right in the middle of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:09] Wow, I mean, it’s incredible to think about all the stories you’ve witnessed and lived through in the Bay Area in the last 50 years as a journalist. Dan and I, just to transition, imagine you’ve probably seen many a government shutdown in your lifetime as well. Of course, it’s been almost a month now since the government shutdown first began, and Alan, I want to stick with you and the shutdown impacts. You’re bringing a story today about the end of the month, and that means SNAP recipients won’t be getting any money next month as a result of the shutdown, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:46] Yeah, I mean, I feel like, at least in my life, this is all anyone’s talking about. This episode comes out a day before SNAP benefits are supposed to begin being dispersed for the month of November. But roughly 5.5 million Californians, about 42 million residents in the U.S. are set to not receive those benefits for actually the first time in the program’s history. So this is really, I mean, this is really code red in terms of food insecurity, in terms of people just struggling to get by. We’ve seen huge spikes in demand at food banks, lots of efforts to sort of help and fill in the gaps, but there’s really no substitute for the federal government with a program like SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:04:27] There are visible signs of this in either people’s lives or out on the street. In Berkeley, we live around the corner from a food pantry. And there was a long line outside there yesterday. And so, I mean, that’s one sign. We know that there’s a record demand for a lot of food banks. And this is another sign of that. And I’ll also say, just on a personal level, we have a family member who sent us a text. And he and his family are dependent on SNAP, and his message to us a couple days ago was, we’re effed, and people are afraid. And then there’s some efforts on the local government front, which have far fewer resources of course than the federal government, to try to answer the need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:13] That’s right. We are seeing efforts from local businesses, local governments, KQED and other news outlets have stories up listing the many restaurants that have volunteered to provide either free or discounted meals to the public. And then in terms of local government, San Francisco is actually going to cover the cost of SNAP benefits for. San Francisco residents only, for the month of November. Costs about $18 million, half of that coming from city money, half of it coming from private foundation money. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has approved about 10 million extra dollars for the Alamedo County Community Food Bank. But, you know, I think everyone’s scrambling here and trying to do what they can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:57] Yeah, I mean, as you said, there’s no real replacement to these benefits at the federal level, but it seems like some stuff is happening locally. And I know Contra Costa County is also planning to give CalFresh recipients some food money if SNAP is paused as well. But I mean is there any sort of relief in sight at the dederal level for SNAP recipients?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:23] Well, the most straightforward way is for the shutdown to end. As of this taping, there is no indication that that is going to happen soon. There is currently a lawsuit. I mean, even as we’re taping this, there is a hearing in the US District Court in Boston. About two dozen states have sued the Trump administration, accusing them essentially of illegally withholding funds for SNAP in November. There is about $5 billion in contingency funds that the USDA has. Basically, these states are saying you can and should spend this money. The Trump administration actually originally said they would use these funds for the continuation of SNAP, but now says they can only be used for natural disasters. So that hearing is happening as we’re taping this, and obviously it’s coming down to the wire here with November 1st coming very, very soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:13] Well, I’m sure many people will be watching what happens with that very closely. Thanks so much for bringing that story, Alan. And we’re gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, we’re going to get into the stories that Dan and I have been following this month. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:38] Welcome back to the Bay’s October News Roundup, where we talk about some of the other stories that we’ve been following this month. And we’re gonna turn to you and your story now, Dan, which is about robo-taxis and driverless cars, which I feel like we’ve talked a lot about here on the show, but your story is about even more driverless vehicles coming to the bay area potentially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:08:01] You know, if you are in the KQED neighborhood anytime soon, any day of the week, you see a lot of these things, right? Waymo is going around the block, it seems like, all the time. But Uber and a couple of other companies announced that they are going to bring sort of a Uber-branded robotaxi to the San Francisco Bay Area. There’s a lot that’s not known about this, but we know who the partners are. It’s a company called Neuro. Which is down on the peninsula, and the other company is Lucid, and Lucid may not be a really familiar name, but we’ve seen their cars on the streets. They are kind of cool-looking electric cars, and Uber has a deal with them to deliver as many as 20,000 new vehicles, which will have this driving system, autonomous driving system from Neuro. And put them on the street in various markets. And we know that their plan first is to come to the San Francisco Bay Area. We don’t know exactly where yet, but that’ll come out probably over the next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:10] Uber has talked about robotaxis forever through multiple CEOs. This has been a dream of theirs, of the companies to have robotaxis and tech giants make pronouncements all the time. We’re going to do this. We’re gonna shake things up. We’re to change everything. So why is this announcement significant?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:09:28] Well, I think there are a couple of reasons. I think one, it shows that the technology has matured to the point where it could actually be adopted on a much wider basis than it has in the past. When Uber is starting to talk about putting 20,000 cars on the street and Waymo is always talking about expanding, and they are expanding, throughout the United States, I mean, these are all demonstrations that this is becoming a much more widely adopted thing that customers are ready for. But the other thing is it raises a lot of questions about what’s happening to the Uber and Lyft drivers, the humans who have joined this workforce by the hundreds of thousands. There’s an estimate that there are 800,000 Uber and lyft drivers in California. What happens to them? And most of these people are doing gig work to fill in sort of a mosaic of employment. Roles that they have that they’re really depending on. To me, those are sort of the major issues that are raised by the increasingly rapid adoption of autonomous taxi services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:39] So what has to happen before these Uber-Robo taxis can hit the streets?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:10:44] It may be a year or two before this actually is in business. They have all sorts of regulatory stuff to get passed first, right? The DMV actually has to look at the vehicle. They have to look the driving system and they have to sort of assign what they call an operational design domain. These are the areas that a company is actually allowed to operate within. So, you know, this venture by Uber we’ll still need to get you know, that kind of clearance before they can move on and then get permission to carry paying passengers in a driverless vehicle from the California Public Utilities Commission. Those approvals can take time, but the technology has matured and that there’s more market acceptance is one level of importance. And I also think that this is pointing the way toward the future of transportation in cities. We’ll see many, many more autonomous vehicles on the street over the next 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:47] Well, Dan, thank you so much for bringing that story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:11:49] You’re welcome, my pleasure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:57] And we’ll finish up with my story about the comeback of the California condor, which is sort of a spooky Halloween-y resurrection story, if you will. After facing near extinction, the California Condor is making a comeback in the Bay Area. These birds are really important to the ecosystem. You know, they’re the ones who pick at dead carcasses and clean up the streets of-\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:12:30] They’re scavenger birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:32] It is gross, but it’s important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:34] And about a century ago, the proliferation of poisons for wolves and grizzly bears and other predators by sort of early pioneers led to higher death rates among these condors, who would eat these dead carcasses that were filled with poison. Have any of you seen what these birds look like, by the way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:12:58] I’ve seen them in the wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:59] Really? Yeah. That’s very rare, I hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:13:02] Well, maybe the best place to see them, relatively close to the Bay Area, is Pinnacles National Park, which is about 100 miles straight south of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:12] But you gotta be pretty up there to see them, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:13:14] Well, yes and no. I mean, the one time I saw them there, I was, we visited and we were in the parking lot and there were six really big birds circling slowly, slowly, slowly going up into the air. And they are pretty, as you described them, sort of Halloweeny, kind of spooky looking birds. You have this naked pink head and a big kind of ugly hook beak and… You’re really seeing a very old piece of history when you see these things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:13:45] I have not seen the California condor, Ericka, can you explain why they’re coming back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:52] Yes, so I mean these are very, very rare birds to catch a glimpse of nowadays and they haven’t been seen in the Bay Area for more than a century now, but an effort to bring them back seems to have been working. There is a group called the Ventana Wildlife Society based in Monterey and they focus on trapping and breeding. And rehabbing these condors for release. So far, the Ventana Wildlife Society has tracked 30 different condors that took multiple trips to parts of Alameda and Contra Costa County in the last two years. And I mean, these are the first sort of movements of these condor in the Bay Area documented in over 100 years, if you can believe it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:14:44] How does one rehab condors?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:47] It’s really hard to do, actually, because these condors reproduce notoriously slow compared to other animals, actually. One condor will lay a single egg roughly every two years, and then they spend a year hatching and raising that chick before hatching another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:15:10] You know, this is one of the great come back stories, as you’ve said. I mean, there were, I mean I’ve heard different numbers, but there were about 17 condors left in the wild in the 1980s and they were brought in. They were all captured and brought in and subject to a captive breeding program. And now we have about 400 that are free flying. That Ventana group you talked about, they’ve been releasing condors and managing condors down there along the Big Sur coast. Sometimes I’ve heard, I haven’t seen this, you’re driving down highway one and there’ll be a condor sitting on the guard rail looking at you. Anyway, just the fact that they survived and the fact they’re still very, very fragile I think makes this a really cool story that they’ve made it back here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:56] And it definitely is a challenge keeping them alive. And while their return to the Bay is, I mean, really exciting because it hasn’t happened for so long, biologists believe that until their population grows substantially bigger, their work is really cut out for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:16:13] You know, one of the threats to them ongoing has been the presence of lead in the environment. And one of sources of lead is a shot that hunters use. So there’s been an effort to sort of replace lead ammunition and shot with steel or copper. And so places like the Ventana Society are, they actually, you know, try to give them a smorgasbord to pick apart, instead of let them go out and. And get into a carcass that might be contaminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:46] I will say, I just found out actually this morning that the Ventana Society has live camera, did you know this Dan? They have live streamed cameras of condors eating the dead carcasses of baby calves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:17:03] Yes, they’re being fed, right, you know, the circle of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:17:11] Well, I guess if you need anything to watch this Halloween, check out that live stream. That’s it for my story and that’s also it for this edition of the Bay’s Monthly News Roundup. Before we let you go, Dan, any retirement plans for you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:17:32] Well, you know, I’m not sure journalists can ever retire. So I feel like I’m going to still be involved in journalism in some way. And because I’m a transportation editor, I’m gonna be using modes of transportation to travel. We’ll see where, maybe up to the Sierra right soon. I’m go to visit the Dallas area for Thanksgiving and then maybe, you now, visit these islands I’ve heard are out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Of 50th state, I think, and maybe we’ll see what’s happening out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:18:06] I went back and counted the number of times you were on the bay. I did not ask AI for this, I went and checked. And I believe this is your 21st appearance on the Bay. I don’t know if that’s the most appearances, it’s got to be in the top three. And I know how much you hate receiving direct praise on mic, but we’ve so appreciated your work with us. Every time you come on, we always learn so much. And I know our listeners appreciate it too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:18:31] Well, you know, 21 is a great number in Las Vegas, okay, I’ll say that, and for my part, I’ll just say that I really appreciate how seriously you’ve taken the mission of serving our audience and really getting into aspects of stories that sometimes we can’t tell as completely as we want to. And I absolutely love the way you can turn sometimes a halting account of something from somebody like me into something that sounds like such good radio, and you’re also really nice folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:19:13] Well, our show is nothing without reporters like you, Dan. So, thank you so much for everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:19:19] You’re very, very welcome.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In this October edition of The Bay’s monthly news roundup, we discuss the impact of the federal government shutdown on hunger in the Bay Area, and how local governments are responding. We also discuss Uber’s plans to enter the driverless vehicle market, and how the California condor is making a comeback after near-extinction. \u003cspan data-slate-fragment=\"JTVCJTdCJTIydHlwZSUyMiUzQSUyMnBhcmFncmFwaCUyMiUyQyUyMmNoaWxkcmVuJTIyJTNBJTVCJTdCJTIydGV4dCUyMiUzQSUyMlBsdXMlMkMlMjB3ZSUyMHBheSUyMHRyaWJ1dGUlMjB0byUyMEtRRUQlMjB0cmFuc3BvcnRhdGlvbiUyMGVkaXRvciUyMERhbiUyMEJyZWtrZSUyQyUyMHdobyUyMGlzJTIwcmV0aXJpbmclMjBhZnRlciUyMG5lYXJseSUyMDUwJTIweWVhcnMlMjBpbiUyMEJheSUyMEFyZWElMjBqb3VybmFsaXNtLiUyMiU3RCU1RCU3RCU1RA==\">Plus, we pay tribute to KQED transportation editor Dan Brekke, who is retiring after nearly 50 years in Bay Area journalism.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC5978954594\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://richmondside.org/2025/10/29/contra-costa-food-bank-calfresh-snap-benefit-cuts/\">Contra Costa County plans to give CalFresh recipients food money if SNAP is paused\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062034/san-francisco-will-cover-full-snap-benefits-for-november-amid-federal-shutdown\">San Francisco Will Cover SNAP Benefits for November Amid Federal Shutdown\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13982957/snap-calfresh-ebt-november-shutdown-meals-food-assistance-san-francisco-bay-area\">With SNAP Benefits Delayed, Restaurants Step Up to Feed Bay Area Families\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/news/808743/uber-lucid-nuro-robotaxi-san-francisco-2026\">Uber will challenge Waymo’s robotaxi dominance in San Francisco\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/10/20/for-a-century-they-were-gone-but-california-condors-are-making-a-comeback-in-these-parts-of-the-bay-area/?campaign=sjmnbreakingnews&utm_email=A4A5B403457285D525DA14E7D1&active=no&lctg=A4A5B403457285D525DA14E7D1\">For a century, they were gone. But California condors are making a comeback in these parts of the Bay Area\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:02] I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to The Bay local news to keep you rooted and welcome to our October news roundup. I’m joined today by The Bay senior editor, Alan Montecillo. What’s up, Alan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:00:14] Hey, good morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:15] And our very, very special guest this month, transportation editor Dan Brekke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:00:22] Hi Ericka.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:23] Hi! Happy Halloween!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:00:26] Is it Halloween already? Oh yeah, it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:28] Yeah, spooky season. Actually, we wanted to have you on as our guest for this month because you are retiring. And I want to take it back a little bit because I feel like for longtime listeners of The Bay, they’re probably familiar with you, but maybe not so much of your backstory. Can you talk a little about how long you’ve been a reporter here in the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:00:52] In the Bay Area, I’ve been doing some media or other since about 1980. And I am going to include the Daily Cal. Daily Cal, of course, is the student newspaper at UC Berkeley. And before that, I had been lucky enough to actually get a newsroom job in Chicago, my hometown, right out of high school. And so I was impressionable. And the impression that the newsroom laid down on me was this is a really fun thing to do. You wanna keep coming back and doing this. And here we are today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:27] 50 years later. Yeah on your last day at KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:32] Listeners of the show know you for your knowledge of transportation, especially public transit. Have you been covering transit this whole time or how did your passion for transit begin?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:01:42] It’s always been present in my life. I grew up in the suburbs mostly in Chicago, a town called Park Forest. Even out there in the suburb, we had a bus line, South Suburban Safeway Lines, and I believe that it cost us a nickel. And that first job I had that I was talking about, I got to commute all the way to the other end in downtown Chicago. I mean, I thought that was the greatest thing ever, that you didn’t have to drive. And you could sleep. And then it just kind of grew from there. First time I came out to the Bay Area in 1973 was on Amtrak, you know, landed at the 16th Street Station in West Oakland, and that was really cool. And yeah, so the rest is history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:02:31] So, I mean, you’ve covered the Bay Area for a long time. Are there any Bay Area stories you’ve covered that really stand out to you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:02:39] Two of the epic occurrences in the Bay Area during my career, one was the earthquake in 1989, which was a terribly traumatic incident. And then just two years later, almost to the day, there was a terrible fire in the Oakland Hills. And yeah, if you worked in a daily newsroom, as I did then, I was at the San Francisco Examiner with a bunch of really good people. You find yourself right in the middle of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:09] Wow, I mean, it’s incredible to think about all the stories you’ve witnessed and lived through in the Bay Area in the last 50 years as a journalist. Dan and I, just to transition, imagine you’ve probably seen many a government shutdown in your lifetime as well. Of course, it’s been almost a month now since the government shutdown first began, and Alan, I want to stick with you and the shutdown impacts. You’re bringing a story today about the end of the month, and that means SNAP recipients won’t be getting any money next month as a result of the shutdown, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:46] Yeah, I mean, I feel like, at least in my life, this is all anyone’s talking about. This episode comes out a day before SNAP benefits are supposed to begin being dispersed for the month of November. But roughly 5.5 million Californians, about 42 million residents in the U.S. are set to not receive those benefits for actually the first time in the program’s history. So this is really, I mean, this is really code red in terms of food insecurity, in terms of people just struggling to get by. We’ve seen huge spikes in demand at food banks, lots of efforts to sort of help and fill in the gaps, but there’s really no substitute for the federal government with a program like SNAP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:04:27] There are visible signs of this in either people’s lives or out on the street. In Berkeley, we live around the corner from a food pantry. And there was a long line outside there yesterday. And so, I mean, that’s one sign. We know that there’s a record demand for a lot of food banks. And this is another sign of that. And I’ll also say, just on a personal level, we have a family member who sent us a text. And he and his family are dependent on SNAP, and his message to us a couple days ago was, we’re effed, and people are afraid. And then there’s some efforts on the local government front, which have far fewer resources of course than the federal government, to try to answer the need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:13] That’s right. We are seeing efforts from local businesses, local governments, KQED and other news outlets have stories up listing the many restaurants that have volunteered to provide either free or discounted meals to the public. And then in terms of local government, San Francisco is actually going to cover the cost of SNAP benefits for. San Francisco residents only, for the month of November. Costs about $18 million, half of that coming from city money, half of it coming from private foundation money. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has approved about 10 million extra dollars for the Alamedo County Community Food Bank. But, you know, I think everyone’s scrambling here and trying to do what they can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:57] Yeah, I mean, as you said, there’s no real replacement to these benefits at the federal level, but it seems like some stuff is happening locally. And I know Contra Costa County is also planning to give CalFresh recipients some food money if SNAP is paused as well. But I mean is there any sort of relief in sight at the dederal level for SNAP recipients?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:23] Well, the most straightforward way is for the shutdown to end. As of this taping, there is no indication that that is going to happen soon. There is currently a lawsuit. I mean, even as we’re taping this, there is a hearing in the US District Court in Boston. About two dozen states have sued the Trump administration, accusing them essentially of illegally withholding funds for SNAP in November. There is about $5 billion in contingency funds that the USDA has. Basically, these states are saying you can and should spend this money. The Trump administration actually originally said they would use these funds for the continuation of SNAP, but now says they can only be used for natural disasters. So that hearing is happening as we’re taping this, and obviously it’s coming down to the wire here with November 1st coming very, very soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:13] Well, I’m sure many people will be watching what happens with that very closely. Thanks so much for bringing that story, Alan. And we’re gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, we’re going to get into the stories that Dan and I have been following this month. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:38] Welcome back to the Bay’s October News Roundup, where we talk about some of the other stories that we’ve been following this month. And we’re gonna turn to you and your story now, Dan, which is about robo-taxis and driverless cars, which I feel like we’ve talked a lot about here on the show, but your story is about even more driverless vehicles coming to the bay area potentially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:08:01] You know, if you are in the KQED neighborhood anytime soon, any day of the week, you see a lot of these things, right? Waymo is going around the block, it seems like, all the time. But Uber and a couple of other companies announced that they are going to bring sort of a Uber-branded robotaxi to the San Francisco Bay Area. There’s a lot that’s not known about this, but we know who the partners are. It’s a company called Neuro. Which is down on the peninsula, and the other company is Lucid, and Lucid may not be a really familiar name, but we’ve seen their cars on the streets. They are kind of cool-looking electric cars, and Uber has a deal with them to deliver as many as 20,000 new vehicles, which will have this driving system, autonomous driving system from Neuro. And put them on the street in various markets. And we know that their plan first is to come to the San Francisco Bay Area. We don’t know exactly where yet, but that’ll come out probably over the next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:10] Uber has talked about robotaxis forever through multiple CEOs. This has been a dream of theirs, of the companies to have robotaxis and tech giants make pronouncements all the time. We’re going to do this. We’re gonna shake things up. We’re to change everything. So why is this announcement significant?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:09:28] Well, I think there are a couple of reasons. I think one, it shows that the technology has matured to the point where it could actually be adopted on a much wider basis than it has in the past. When Uber is starting to talk about putting 20,000 cars on the street and Waymo is always talking about expanding, and they are expanding, throughout the United States, I mean, these are all demonstrations that this is becoming a much more widely adopted thing that customers are ready for. But the other thing is it raises a lot of questions about what’s happening to the Uber and Lyft drivers, the humans who have joined this workforce by the hundreds of thousands. There’s an estimate that there are 800,000 Uber and lyft drivers in California. What happens to them? And most of these people are doing gig work to fill in sort of a mosaic of employment. Roles that they have that they’re really depending on. To me, those are sort of the major issues that are raised by the increasingly rapid adoption of autonomous taxi services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:39] So what has to happen before these Uber-Robo taxis can hit the streets?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:10:44] It may be a year or two before this actually is in business. They have all sorts of regulatory stuff to get passed first, right? The DMV actually has to look at the vehicle. They have to look the driving system and they have to sort of assign what they call an operational design domain. These are the areas that a company is actually allowed to operate within. So, you know, this venture by Uber we’ll still need to get you know, that kind of clearance before they can move on and then get permission to carry paying passengers in a driverless vehicle from the California Public Utilities Commission. Those approvals can take time, but the technology has matured and that there’s more market acceptance is one level of importance. And I also think that this is pointing the way toward the future of transportation in cities. We’ll see many, many more autonomous vehicles on the street over the next 10 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:47] Well, Dan, thank you so much for bringing that story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:11:49] You’re welcome, my pleasure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:57] And we’ll finish up with my story about the comeback of the California condor, which is sort of a spooky Halloween-y resurrection story, if you will. After facing near extinction, the California Condor is making a comeback in the Bay Area. These birds are really important to the ecosystem. You know, they’re the ones who pick at dead carcasses and clean up the streets of-\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:12:30] They’re scavenger birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:32] It is gross, but it’s important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:34] And about a century ago, the proliferation of poisons for wolves and grizzly bears and other predators by sort of early pioneers led to higher death rates among these condors, who would eat these dead carcasses that were filled with poison. Have any of you seen what these birds look like, by the way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:12:58] I’ve seen them in the wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:59] Really? Yeah. That’s very rare, I hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:13:02] Well, maybe the best place to see them, relatively close to the Bay Area, is Pinnacles National Park, which is about 100 miles straight south of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:12] But you gotta be pretty up there to see them, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:13:14] Well, yes and no. I mean, the one time I saw them there, I was, we visited and we were in the parking lot and there were six really big birds circling slowly, slowly, slowly going up into the air. And they are pretty, as you described them, sort of Halloweeny, kind of spooky looking birds. You have this naked pink head and a big kind of ugly hook beak and… You’re really seeing a very old piece of history when you see these things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:13:45] I have not seen the California condor, Ericka, can you explain why they’re coming back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:52] Yes, so I mean these are very, very rare birds to catch a glimpse of nowadays and they haven’t been seen in the Bay Area for more than a century now, but an effort to bring them back seems to have been working. There is a group called the Ventana Wildlife Society based in Monterey and they focus on trapping and breeding. And rehabbing these condors for release. So far, the Ventana Wildlife Society has tracked 30 different condors that took multiple trips to parts of Alameda and Contra Costa County in the last two years. And I mean, these are the first sort of movements of these condor in the Bay Area documented in over 100 years, if you can believe it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:14:44] How does one rehab condors?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:47] It’s really hard to do, actually, because these condors reproduce notoriously slow compared to other animals, actually. One condor will lay a single egg roughly every two years, and then they spend a year hatching and raising that chick before hatching another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:15:10] You know, this is one of the great come back stories, as you’ve said. I mean, there were, I mean I’ve heard different numbers, but there were about 17 condors left in the wild in the 1980s and they were brought in. They were all captured and brought in and subject to a captive breeding program. And now we have about 400 that are free flying. That Ventana group you talked about, they’ve been releasing condors and managing condors down there along the Big Sur coast. Sometimes I’ve heard, I haven’t seen this, you’re driving down highway one and there’ll be a condor sitting on the guard rail looking at you. Anyway, just the fact that they survived and the fact they’re still very, very fragile I think makes this a really cool story that they’ve made it back here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:56] And it definitely is a challenge keeping them alive. And while their return to the Bay is, I mean, really exciting because it hasn’t happened for so long, biologists believe that until their population grows substantially bigger, their work is really cut out for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:16:13] You know, one of the threats to them ongoing has been the presence of lead in the environment. And one of sources of lead is a shot that hunters use. So there’s been an effort to sort of replace lead ammunition and shot with steel or copper. And so places like the Ventana Society are, they actually, you know, try to give them a smorgasbord to pick apart, instead of let them go out and. And get into a carcass that might be contaminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:46] I will say, I just found out actually this morning that the Ventana Society has live camera, did you know this Dan? They have live streamed cameras of condors eating the dead carcasses of baby calves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:17:03] Yes, they’re being fed, right, you know, the circle of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:17:11] Well, I guess if you need anything to watch this Halloween, check out that live stream. That’s it for my story and that’s also it for this edition of the Bay’s Monthly News Roundup. Before we let you go, Dan, any retirement plans for you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:17:32] Well, you know, I’m not sure journalists can ever retire. So I feel like I’m going to still be involved in journalism in some way. And because I’m a transportation editor, I’m gonna be using modes of transportation to travel. We’ll see where, maybe up to the Sierra right soon. I’m go to visit the Dallas area for Thanksgiving and then maybe, you now, visit these islands I’ve heard are out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Of 50th state, I think, and maybe we’ll see what’s happening out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:18:06] I went back and counted the number of times you were on the bay. I did not ask AI for this, I went and checked. And I believe this is your 21st appearance on the Bay. I don’t know if that’s the most appearances, it’s got to be in the top three. And I know how much you hate receiving direct praise on mic, but we’ve so appreciated your work with us. Every time you come on, we always learn so much. And I know our listeners appreciate it too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke \u003c/strong>[00:18:31] Well, you know, 21 is a great number in Las Vegas, okay, I’ll say that, and for my part, I’ll just say that I really appreciate how seriously you’ve taken the mission of serving our audience and really getting into aspects of stories that sometimes we can’t tell as completely as we want to. And I absolutely love the way you can turn sometimes a halting account of something from somebody like me into something that sounds like such good radio, and you’re also really nice folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:19:13] Well, our show is nothing without reporters like you, Dan. So, thank you so much for everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "sf-supervisors-propose-tax-on-wealthy-ceos-ride-hailing-companies-for-2026-ballot",
"title": "SF Supervisors Propose Tax on Wealthy CEOs, Ride-Hailing Companies for 2026 Ballot",
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"headTitle": "SF Supervisors Propose Tax on Wealthy CEOs, Ride-Hailing Companies for 2026 Ballot | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco supervisors are looking to increase taxes on the city’s wealthiest executives and ride-hailing companies through a \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/20251024_Gross_Receipts_Tax_Increase_for_Certain_Ride_Services.pdf?utm_campaign=power_play&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfs_newsletter&utm_term=10_26_25\">November 2026 ballot measure\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Connie Chan said the move was urgent after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s recent comments supporting President Donald Trump’s threats to send the National Guard to San Francisco, which triggered a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060875/san-francisco-prepares-necessary-legal-action-if-trump-deploys-national-guard\">media firestorm\u003c/a> before Benioff \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060384/salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-walks-back-call-for-national-guard-to-san-francisco\">walked back his remarks\u003c/a> and proved instrumental in getting Trump to abandon his plans for an immigration enforcement surge in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They make billions in profit off of the backs of workers in San Francisco, then they can have a throwaway line and throw the entire city into turmoil. It’s time to make sure they pay their fair share,” Chan told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan’s proposal would ask city voters to reinstate the previous structure of the city’s Overpaid Executive Tax, which imposes a tax on businesses where the highest-paid executive earns more than 100 times the median compensation of San Francisco employees.. In November 2024, voters repealed parts of the executive tax through Proposition M, a comprehensive business tax reform measure. Chan’s proposal allows other changes made in Prop M to remain intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan would also raise taxes on ride-hailing companies, including Uber, Lyft and Waymo, similar to Proposition L on the November 2024 ballot. Although voters approved Prop L, the proposal did not take effect because Prop M included a provision that nullified the ride-share tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053307\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053307\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/231102-DriverlessTaxi-15-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/231102-DriverlessTaxi-15-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/231102-DriverlessTaxi-15-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/231102-DriverlessTaxi-15-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Waymo driverless taxi drives through Downtown San Francisco, California, on Nov. 2, 2023. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/SF Chronicle )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ballot measure proposal needs only a 50% majority to pass, and could generate around $150-200 million annually. It has been submitted for a hearing before the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee; however, it automatically qualifies for the November 2026 ballot because four supervisors signed on — Chan, along with Supervisors Shamann Walton, Jackie Fielder and Chyanne Chen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan, who represents the Richmond District, said the funding, which would not be earmarked for a specific purpose, is needed as the city weathers cuts from the federal government to healthcare, food benefits and the city’s public transportation system, which is facing a deficit of more than $300 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our city government is being put into an impossible position to step up to the plate, which is to say that this is the time and moment that billionaires need to pay their fair share,” Chan said. “We know that since January, they’ve gotten their way with the Trump administration through tax cuts.”[aside postID=news_12060384 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/ap20336794283031_custom-78b2f9039ebb1cd87ba3c4d3edf97a3854590c5a-1020x679.jpg']Other state and local officials have meanwhile put forward other ideas to solve the city’s funding gaps. Mayor Daniel Lurie is backing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-unveils-heart-of-the-city-executive-directive-to-accelerate-san-franciscos-economic-comeback\">parcel tax that would raise funding\u003c/a> for local public transit. State Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley) have put forward a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032607/first-look-at-2026-tax-proposal-to-keep-bay-area-transit-running\">regional sales tax for the November 2026\u003c/a> ballot to fund Bay Area transit agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie has not publicly commented on the recent progressive business tax measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, the mayor moved to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-announces-next-phase-of-waymo-operations-on-market-street-to-drive-downtowns-comeback-with-new-transportation-options-coming-to-market-street-august-26\">allow Waymo’s autonomous vehicles\u003c/a> to drive along the stretch of Market Street where cars are prohibited, stirring backlash from Uber and Lyft, as well as public transportation and bicycle advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This measure would hinder the city’s comeback by making rides more expensive and hurting drivers,” said CJ Macklin, director of communications at Lyft. “This would be particularly devastating for low-income communities who struggle to even access the Muni system and depend on ride-share to get around. It’s the wrong move for San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This TNC tax hits people who most rely on our platform to move and work,” a spokesperson for Uber said in an email. “It is irresponsible and blatantly ignores the city’s affordability crisis, less than a year after voters overwhelmingly approved business tax reform [Prop M] to encourage our city’s recovery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waymo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents downtown and Mission Bay, where many major companies and ride-share services are based, did not co-sign the paperwork for the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he said he’s open to a tax on ride-hailing companies to fund public transportation, and supported Prop L in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My big worry as the downtown supervisor when we ask for funding for our transit service and Muni, in particular, it needs to be a tax that’s fair, reasonable and sufficient to solve the problem,” Dorsey said. “I would like for everybody to get on the same page. Public transit is something that we can’t afford to lose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco supervisors are looking to increase taxes on the city’s wealthiest executives and ride-hailing companies through a \u003ca href=\"https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/20251024_Gross_Receipts_Tax_Increase_for_Certain_Ride_Services.pdf?utm_campaign=power_play&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfs_newsletter&utm_term=10_26_25\">November 2026 ballot measure\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Connie Chan said the move was urgent after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s recent comments supporting President Donald Trump’s threats to send the National Guard to San Francisco, which triggered a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060875/san-francisco-prepares-necessary-legal-action-if-trump-deploys-national-guard\">media firestorm\u003c/a> before Benioff \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060384/salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-walks-back-call-for-national-guard-to-san-francisco\">walked back his remarks\u003c/a> and proved instrumental in getting Trump to abandon his plans for an immigration enforcement surge in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They make billions in profit off of the backs of workers in San Francisco, then they can have a throwaway line and throw the entire city into turmoil. It’s time to make sure they pay their fair share,” Chan told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan’s proposal would ask city voters to reinstate the previous structure of the city’s Overpaid Executive Tax, which imposes a tax on businesses where the highest-paid executive earns more than 100 times the median compensation of San Francisco employees.. In November 2024, voters repealed parts of the executive tax through Proposition M, a comprehensive business tax reform measure. Chan’s proposal allows other changes made in Prop M to remain intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan would also raise taxes on ride-hailing companies, including Uber, Lyft and Waymo, similar to Proposition L on the November 2024 ballot. Although voters approved Prop L, the proposal did not take effect because Prop M included a provision that nullified the ride-share tax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053307\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053307\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/231102-DriverlessTaxi-15-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/231102-DriverlessTaxi-15-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/231102-DriverlessTaxi-15-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/231102-DriverlessTaxi-15-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Waymo driverless taxi drives through Downtown San Francisco, California, on Nov. 2, 2023. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/SF Chronicle )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ballot measure proposal needs only a 50% majority to pass, and could generate around $150-200 million annually. It has been submitted for a hearing before the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee; however, it automatically qualifies for the November 2026 ballot because four supervisors signed on — Chan, along with Supervisors Shamann Walton, Jackie Fielder and Chyanne Chen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan, who represents the Richmond District, said the funding, which would not be earmarked for a specific purpose, is needed as the city weathers cuts from the federal government to healthcare, food benefits and the city’s public transportation system, which is facing a deficit of more than $300 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our city government is being put into an impossible position to step up to the plate, which is to say that this is the time and moment that billionaires need to pay their fair share,” Chan said. “We know that since January, they’ve gotten their way with the Trump administration through tax cuts.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Other state and local officials have meanwhile put forward other ideas to solve the city’s funding gaps. Mayor Daniel Lurie is backing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-unveils-heart-of-the-city-executive-directive-to-accelerate-san-franciscos-economic-comeback\">parcel tax that would raise funding\u003c/a> for local public transit. State Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley) have put forward a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032607/first-look-at-2026-tax-proposal-to-keep-bay-area-transit-running\">regional sales tax for the November 2026\u003c/a> ballot to fund Bay Area transit agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie has not publicly commented on the recent progressive business tax measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, the mayor moved to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-announces-next-phase-of-waymo-operations-on-market-street-to-drive-downtowns-comeback-with-new-transportation-options-coming-to-market-street-august-26\">allow Waymo’s autonomous vehicles\u003c/a> to drive along the stretch of Market Street where cars are prohibited, stirring backlash from Uber and Lyft, as well as public transportation and bicycle advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This measure would hinder the city’s comeback by making rides more expensive and hurting drivers,” said CJ Macklin, director of communications at Lyft. “This would be particularly devastating for low-income communities who struggle to even access the Muni system and depend on ride-share to get around. It’s the wrong move for San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This TNC tax hits people who most rely on our platform to move and work,” a spokesperson for Uber said in an email. “It is irresponsible and blatantly ignores the city’s affordability crisis, less than a year after voters overwhelmingly approved business tax reform [Prop M] to encourage our city’s recovery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waymo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents downtown and Mission Bay, where many major companies and ride-share services are based, did not co-sign the paperwork for the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he said he’s open to a tax on ride-hailing companies to fund public transportation, and supported Prop L in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My big worry as the downtown supervisor when we ask for funding for our transit service and Muni, in particular, it needs to be a tax that’s fair, reasonable and sufficient to solve the problem,” Dorsey said. “I would like for everybody to get on the same page. Public transit is something that we can’t afford to lose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Uber Driver Charged in Connection With Starting the Palisades Fire",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nine months after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/palisades-fire\">Palisades Fire ignited\u003c/a>, killing 12 and destroying more than 6,800 structures, authorities announced that they’ve arrested and charged 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht in connection to starting the deadly blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Rinderknecht was arrested Tuesday in Florida. He has been \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/usa-v-rinderknecht.pdf\">charged\u003c/a> with destruction of property by means of fire, which is a felony that carries a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been investigating since January and has determined that it was a reignition of an earlier fire. Officials said at a news conference Wednesday that Rinderknecht started that fire six days earlier while working as an Uber driver — around midnight on Jan. 1 — after dropping off a passenger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 8-acre Lachman Fire didn’t spread far as L.A. city and county helicopters made water drops and hand crews cut a fire line, helping to contain the blaze before moving on to mop up. Firefighters then patrolled the burned area to extinguish smoldering stumps, logs and piles of ash, as there was a risk of reignition later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s exactly what appears to have happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059124\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1584px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059124\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1584\" height=\"892\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes.jpeg 1584w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes-1536x865.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1584px) 100vw, 1584px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This undated photo provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office shows Jonathan Rinderknecht, a suspect in the Palisades Fire. \u003ccite>(Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Essayli, the fire smoldered underground until strong winds on Jan. 7 caused the fire to surface and spread, becoming one of the most destructive fires on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speculation about the case of the fire had centered on fireworks, but Essayli said that authorities have no evidence that’s the case. Rinderknecht reportedly lived in the Pacific Palisades, but had relocated to Florida since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authorities gave no potential motive. They projected AI images, said to have been generated by the suspect, at a news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059125\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1584px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059125\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1584\" height=\"906\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires.jpeg 1584w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires-160x92.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires-1536x879.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1584px) 100vw, 1584px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">AI-generated images were displayed by federal officials when they announced the arrest of a man in connection with the Palisades Fire. \u003ccite>(Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass thanked federal and local investigators for the work that led to the arrest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Each day that families are displaced is a day too long,” Bass said, “and as we are working tirelessly to bring Angelenos home, we are also working towards closure and towards justice — and today is a step forward in that process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The backstory\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Palisades Fire sparked about 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7, amid a massive windstorm in Southern California. By the time it was fully contained 24 days later, the fire had burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,800 structures and damaging 937 more. Twelve people were killed.\u003cbr>\n[aside postID=news_12058885 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/ReligiousCenterFirePasadenaJewishTempleGetty-1020x671.jpg']An \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/la-county-emergency-response-after-action-reports-woolsey-palisades-eaton\">LAist review of after-action reports\u003c/a> released following the January fires and the 2018 Woolsey Fire — which killed three people and destroyed nearly 2,000 structures across L.A. and Ventura counties — found similar shortfalls in L.A. County’s emergency response. The reports offer similar recommendations for how to fix the issues too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department told LAist it isn’t “reasonable or appropriate” to compare the reports, a sentiment echoed by the county Fire Department, which said in a statement that “hurricane-force winds that caused a never-before-seen ember cast and house-to-house ignition, the idea that recommendations in the Woolsey After-Action Report are strikingly similar to those in the Eaton/Palisades wildfires, we disagree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the announcement of the arrest in the Palisades Fire, Bass said the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report would be released soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Nine months after the Palisades Fire ignited, killing 12 and destroying more than 6,800 structures, authorities announced that they've arrested and charged a suspect in connection to the start of the deadly blaze.\r\n\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nine months after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/palisades-fire\">Palisades Fire ignited\u003c/a>, killing 12 and destroying more than 6,800 structures, authorities announced that they’ve arrested and charged 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht in connection to starting the deadly blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Rinderknecht was arrested Tuesday in Florida. He has been \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/usa-v-rinderknecht.pdf\">charged\u003c/a> with destruction of property by means of fire, which is a felony that carries a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been investigating since January and has determined that it was a reignition of an earlier fire. Officials said at a news conference Wednesday that Rinderknecht started that fire six days earlier while working as an Uber driver — around midnight on Jan. 1 — after dropping off a passenger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 8-acre Lachman Fire didn’t spread far as L.A. city and county helicopters made water drops and hand crews cut a fire line, helping to contain the blaze before moving on to mop up. Firefighters then patrolled the burned area to extinguish smoldering stumps, logs and piles of ash, as there was a risk of reignition later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s exactly what appears to have happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059124\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1584px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059124\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1584\" height=\"892\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes.jpeg 1584w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/Mug-shot-firtes-1536x865.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1584px) 100vw, 1584px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This undated photo provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office shows Jonathan Rinderknecht, a suspect in the Palisades Fire. \u003ccite>(Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Essayli, the fire smoldered underground until strong winds on Jan. 7 caused the fire to surface and spread, becoming one of the most destructive fires on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speculation about the case of the fire had centered on fireworks, but Essayli said that authorities have no evidence that’s the case. Rinderknecht reportedly lived in the Pacific Palisades, but had relocated to Florida since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authorities gave no potential motive. They projected AI images, said to have been generated by the suspect, at a news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059125\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1584px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059125\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1584\" height=\"906\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires.jpeg 1584w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires-160x92.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/AI-gen-fires-1536x879.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1584px) 100vw, 1584px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">AI-generated images were displayed by federal officials when they announced the arrest of a man in connection with the Palisades Fire. \u003ccite>(Courtesy U.S. Attorney's Office)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass thanked federal and local investigators for the work that led to the arrest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Each day that families are displaced is a day too long,” Bass said, “and as we are working tirelessly to bring Angelenos home, we are also working towards closure and towards justice — and today is a step forward in that process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The backstory\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Palisades Fire sparked about 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7, amid a massive windstorm in Southern California. By the time it was fully contained 24 days later, the fire had burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,800 structures and damaging 937 more. Twelve people were killed.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/la-county-emergency-response-after-action-reports-woolsey-palisades-eaton\">LAist review of after-action reports\u003c/a> released following the January fires and the 2018 Woolsey Fire — which killed three people and destroyed nearly 2,000 structures across L.A. and Ventura counties — found similar shortfalls in L.A. County’s emergency response. The reports offer similar recommendations for how to fix the issues too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department told LAist it isn’t “reasonable or appropriate” to compare the reports, a sentiment echoed by the county Fire Department, which said in a statement that “hurricane-force winds that caused a never-before-seen ember cast and house-to-house ignition, the idea that recommendations in the Woolsey After-Action Report are strikingly similar to those in the Eaton/Palisades wildfires, we disagree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the announcement of the arrest in the Palisades Fire, Bass said the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report would be released soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of ride-hailing app drivers gained a path to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034860/california-bill-would-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-bargain-collectively\">negotiate a first union contract\u003c/a> with Uber and Lyft, even as they remain classified as independent contractors, under legislation signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law was hailed as a milestone for app-based drivers in their yearslong battle to expand workplace rights, though critics of the measure said drivers will face serious hurdles to convince the tech giants to raise their pay and benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are now empowered to affect the conditions and the wages of the drivers,” said Joseph Augusto, who has driven for Uber and Lyft in the Bay Area for more than 10 years. “We are looking forward to building a union and trying to negotiate with Uber and Lyft. This is a step forward. It’s going to take a lot more work, but this is the beginning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ride-hail drivers in California have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11928844/rideshare-drivers-rally-for-rights-announce-new-statewide-union\">formed unions\u003c/a> in the past, but the app-based transportation giants weren’t required to bargain with them. AB 1340 by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, and Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, will change that starting Jan. 1 for drivers’ unions certified by a state board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber, Lyft and other gig companies \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034860/california-bill-would-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-bargain-collectively\">successfully fought\u003c/a> to classify drivers as independent contractors in a 2020 California ballot measure. Under federal law, most private sector employees have the right to collectively bargain and receive benefits such as minimum wage and overtime; independent contractors typically do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033653\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033653\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/IMG_1196-scaled-e1759530132238.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood on Oct. 12, 2022. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The new legislation requires app-based transportation companies and certified unions to negotiate in good faith over issues such as driver deactivations, paid leave and earnings. It also protects gig drivers from retaliation and offers the opportunity to reach an industry-wide contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Employment Relations Board is set to enforce the provisions, including by overseeing union elections and bargaining, mediating disputes and determining whether any unfair labor practices occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber and Lyft initially opposed the measure, arguing that it would increase the price of rides and exclude most drivers who don’t work a significant number of hours per week. But the companies changed their stance in August, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/08/29/governor-newsom-pro-tem-mcguire-speaker-rivas-announce-support-for-legislation-empowering-gig-workers-improving-rideshare-affordability/\">in exchange\u003c/a> for significant reductions in insurance requirements through another bill, SB 371.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents to that bill argued that the concessions, which are expected to save the companies money by lowering the underinsured motorist coverage from $1 million to $60,000 per person, will shift the financial burden from serious accidents to vulnerable Californians and hospitals. The companies said the move will help them reduce the price of ride-hail services.[aside postID=news_12033648 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-1020x680.jpg']“AB 1340 and SB 371 together represent a compromise that lowers costs for riders while creating stronger voices for drivers — demonstrating how industry, labor, and lawmakers can work together to deliver real solutions,” Ramona Prieto, Uber’s head of public policy for California, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Uber and Lyft, drivers enjoy the flexibility to set their own schedules and an employee model threatens the companies’ survival. The 2020 ballot measure backed by the companies, Proposition 22, promised drivers would receive at least 120% of the local minimum wage, a health care stipend of up to $426 for those working a certain number of hours and accident insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many ride-hail drivers say they have seen their real wages slip since, while the companies became profitable. Researchers at the UC Berkeley Labor Center \u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/gig-passenger-and-delivery-driver-pay-in-five-metro-areas/\">found\u003c/a> last year that California passenger drivers made less than the state’s minimum wage, after car expenses and excluding tips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AB 1340 restricts the organizations that may be certified to represent drivers to those that have experience negotiating a labor contract or that are affiliated with such a union. Supporters of the measure said the requirements will ensure legitimate organizations have the resources to represent what could become a very large statewide bargaining bloc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rideshare Drivers United, an organization with more than 20,000 California gig driver members, said the conditions could unduly benefit the Service Employees International Union, a major labor group that sponsored AB 1340 and backed a similar initiative in Massachusetts that voters approved last fall. Jason Munderloh, who began driving for Uber and Lyft in San Francisco 11 years ago, said he is also concerned that the new law \u003ca href=\"https://www.caaa.org/?pg=latestnews&blAction=showEntry&blogEntry=130853#:~:text=AB%201340%20offers%20a%20state,the%20traditional%20workers'%20compensation%20system.\">does not guarantee\u003c/a> the right to strike, a key to union leverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11986560\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11986560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A car with a Lyft sign drives with a black flag in the window.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rideshare drivers form a row to block the street in front of the DoorDash headquarters in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2021, during a protest for fair wages and employee protections. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a missed opportunity,” said Munderloh, who volunteers with Rideshare Drivers United. “We’re going to be in what might be a very long fight. We need to start on the right foot. And we need a very strong [law]. And I just don’t see that that’s the way AB 1340 is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Munderloh pointed to the difficulties unionized employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act have had in securing a first contract with Starbucks, Amazon and other large corporations. Employer \u003ca href=\"https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/news/research/bronfenbrenner-outlines-employer-anti-union-efforts-congress\">opposition\u003c/a> and the lack of financial penalties for unfair labor practices under that federal law make it difficult for some employees to ever win a first union contract, according to researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s new legislation allows ride-hail drivers to engage in protected union activities, such as a work stoppage. But the state can’t guarantee the right to strike because of federal antitrust laws, according to Scott Kronland, an attorney with Altshuler Berzon in San Francisco who advised the SEIU on AB 1340.[aside postID=news_12056553 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/LegalAide.jpg']It’s yet to be seen whether federal courts could see striking ride-hail drivers as businesses banding together to illegally reduce competition, since they are not employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very complicated bill, but there are significant legal constraints,” said Kronland, who argued a challenge to Proposition 22 on behalf of several drivers and unions. “And basically, this is the best you are going to do with Prop 22 and federal antitrust laws until you can change them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AB 1340 became possible after the California Court of Appeals in that case struck down language that prevented state lawmakers from authorizing collective bargaining rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Weil, a professor of social policy and economics at Brandeis University, said he was skeptical that a deal embraced by the tech giants would significantly benefit drivers in the long run, even if workers can get to the bargaining table. Uber and Lyft control their drivers’ ever-changing rates, what rides they have access to and how much riders will pay by crunching data through an algorithm that works to maximize the companies’ profits, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uber and Lyft, because of their vast control of information and algorithms, are always in a position where they have the advantage. … To borrow a gambling term, it’s always going to be the house that always wins relative to the drivers,” said Weil, who led the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division during the Obama administration. “They’re not going to surrender their ability to set prices and their ability to hold all the cards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as Uber and Lyft continue to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033648/uber-lyft-withheld-billions-in-pay-california-alleges-settlement-talks-are-underway\">negotiate a settlement\u003c/a> with California, as well as the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, which sued the companies over the alleged withholding of wages for thousands of drivers during a period of time before Proposition 22 passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drivers like Munderloh are demanding that the state and cities get an agreement that recoups billions of dollars in back wages and benefits, as well as raises driver pay going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The best way for drivers to improve what we’re being paid is actually the wage theft lawsuit that’s going on,” he said. “And the union struggle that we’re having here with AB 1340 is a longer-term issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of ride-hailing app drivers gained a path to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034860/california-bill-would-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-bargain-collectively\">negotiate a first union contract\u003c/a> with Uber and Lyft, even as they remain classified as independent contractors, under legislation signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law was hailed as a milestone for app-based drivers in their yearslong battle to expand workplace rights, though critics of the measure said drivers will face serious hurdles to convince the tech giants to raise their pay and benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are now empowered to affect the conditions and the wages of the drivers,” said Joseph Augusto, who has driven for Uber and Lyft in the Bay Area for more than 10 years. “We are looking forward to building a union and trying to negotiate with Uber and Lyft. This is a step forward. It’s going to take a lot more work, but this is the beginning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ride-hail drivers in California have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11928844/rideshare-drivers-rally-for-rights-announce-new-statewide-union\">formed unions\u003c/a> in the past, but the app-based transportation giants weren’t required to bargain with them. AB 1340 by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, and Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, will change that starting Jan. 1 for drivers’ unions certified by a state board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber, Lyft and other gig companies \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034860/california-bill-would-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-bargain-collectively\">successfully fought\u003c/a> to classify drivers as independent contractors in a 2020 California ballot measure. Under federal law, most private sector employees have the right to collectively bargain and receive benefits such as minimum wage and overtime; independent contractors typically do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033653\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033653\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/IMG_1196-scaled-e1759530132238.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood on Oct. 12, 2022. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The new legislation requires app-based transportation companies and certified unions to negotiate in good faith over issues such as driver deactivations, paid leave and earnings. It also protects gig drivers from retaliation and offers the opportunity to reach an industry-wide contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Employment Relations Board is set to enforce the provisions, including by overseeing union elections and bargaining, mediating disputes and determining whether any unfair labor practices occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber and Lyft initially opposed the measure, arguing that it would increase the price of rides and exclude most drivers who don’t work a significant number of hours per week. But the companies changed their stance in August, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/08/29/governor-newsom-pro-tem-mcguire-speaker-rivas-announce-support-for-legislation-empowering-gig-workers-improving-rideshare-affordability/\">in exchange\u003c/a> for significant reductions in insurance requirements through another bill, SB 371.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents to that bill argued that the concessions, which are expected to save the companies money by lowering the underinsured motorist coverage from $1 million to $60,000 per person, will shift the financial burden from serious accidents to vulnerable Californians and hospitals. The companies said the move will help them reduce the price of ride-hail services.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“AB 1340 and SB 371 together represent a compromise that lowers costs for riders while creating stronger voices for drivers — demonstrating how industry, labor, and lawmakers can work together to deliver real solutions,” Ramona Prieto, Uber’s head of public policy for California, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Uber and Lyft, drivers enjoy the flexibility to set their own schedules and an employee model threatens the companies’ survival. The 2020 ballot measure backed by the companies, Proposition 22, promised drivers would receive at least 120% of the local minimum wage, a health care stipend of up to $426 for those working a certain number of hours and accident insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many ride-hail drivers say they have seen their real wages slip since, while the companies became profitable. Researchers at the UC Berkeley Labor Center \u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/gig-passenger-and-delivery-driver-pay-in-five-metro-areas/\">found\u003c/a> last year that California passenger drivers made less than the state’s minimum wage, after car expenses and excluding tips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AB 1340 restricts the organizations that may be certified to represent drivers to those that have experience negotiating a labor contract or that are affiliated with such a union. Supporters of the measure said the requirements will ensure legitimate organizations have the resources to represent what could become a very large statewide bargaining bloc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rideshare Drivers United, an organization with more than 20,000 California gig driver members, said the conditions could unduly benefit the Service Employees International Union, a major labor group that sponsored AB 1340 and backed a similar initiative in Massachusetts that voters approved last fall. Jason Munderloh, who began driving for Uber and Lyft in San Francisco 11 years ago, said he is also concerned that the new law \u003ca href=\"https://www.caaa.org/?pg=latestnews&blAction=showEntry&blogEntry=130853#:~:text=AB%201340%20offers%20a%20state,the%20traditional%20workers'%20compensation%20system.\">does not guarantee\u003c/a> the right to strike, a key to union leverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11986560\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11986560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A car with a Lyft sign drives with a black flag in the window.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/001_SanFrancisco_GigWorkersProtest_11032021_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rideshare drivers form a row to block the street in front of the DoorDash headquarters in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2021, during a protest for fair wages and employee protections. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a missed opportunity,” said Munderloh, who volunteers with Rideshare Drivers United. “We’re going to be in what might be a very long fight. We need to start on the right foot. And we need a very strong [law]. And I just don’t see that that’s the way AB 1340 is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Munderloh pointed to the difficulties unionized employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act have had in securing a first contract with Starbucks, Amazon and other large corporations. Employer \u003ca href=\"https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/news/research/bronfenbrenner-outlines-employer-anti-union-efforts-congress\">opposition\u003c/a> and the lack of financial penalties for unfair labor practices under that federal law make it difficult for some employees to ever win a first union contract, according to researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s new legislation allows ride-hail drivers to engage in protected union activities, such as a work stoppage. But the state can’t guarantee the right to strike because of federal antitrust laws, according to Scott Kronland, an attorney with Altshuler Berzon in San Francisco who advised the SEIU on AB 1340.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It’s yet to be seen whether federal courts could see striking ride-hail drivers as businesses banding together to illegally reduce competition, since they are not employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very complicated bill, but there are significant legal constraints,” said Kronland, who argued a challenge to Proposition 22 on behalf of several drivers and unions. “And basically, this is the best you are going to do with Prop 22 and federal antitrust laws until you can change them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AB 1340 became possible after the California Court of Appeals in that case struck down language that prevented state lawmakers from authorizing collective bargaining rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Weil, a professor of social policy and economics at Brandeis University, said he was skeptical that a deal embraced by the tech giants would significantly benefit drivers in the long run, even if workers can get to the bargaining table. Uber and Lyft control their drivers’ ever-changing rates, what rides they have access to and how much riders will pay by crunching data through an algorithm that works to maximize the companies’ profits, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uber and Lyft, because of their vast control of information and algorithms, are always in a position where they have the advantage. … To borrow a gambling term, it’s always going to be the house that always wins relative to the drivers,” said Weil, who led the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division during the Obama administration. “They’re not going to surrender their ability to set prices and their ability to hold all the cards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comes as Uber and Lyft continue to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033648/uber-lyft-withheld-billions-in-pay-california-alleges-settlement-talks-are-underway\">negotiate a settlement\u003c/a> with California, as well as the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, which sued the companies over the alleged withholding of wages for thousands of drivers during a period of time before Proposition 22 passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drivers like Munderloh are demanding that the state and cities get an agreement that recoups billions of dollars in back wages and benefits, as well as raises driver pay going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The best way for drivers to improve what we’re being paid is actually the wage theft lawsuit that’s going on,” he said. “And the union struggle that we’re having here with AB 1340 is a longer-term issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:57 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years after safe street advocates celebrated San Francisco’s decision to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11797529/san-franciscos-market-street-is-going-car-free-next-week-7-things-you-need-to-know\">make Market Street \u003c/a>car-free, cars — both with and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035348/mayor-lurie-allows-waymo-on-sfs-car-free-market-street\">without drivers\u003c/a> — will begin rolling down the thoroughfare on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie said Wednesday that his office was granting Waymo autonomous vehicles and some Uber and Lyft cars access to the two-mile vehicle-free span of the street as part of his push to revitalize downtown. But Robin Pam, the executive director of Streets for All San Francisco, says the limited, and likely expensive, vehicle expansion will only harm the corridor’s long-desired transformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Putting cars back on Market is really a big step backwards, and it’s going to prevent us from making progress toward that vision of a more vibrant people-first space that really will attract more people to come downtown and want to be there,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pilot phase that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency starts Tuesday will test the impact of Waymo and some Uber and Lyft operations on Market Street outside peak commute hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move comes after Lurie gave Waymo permission to begin mapping the street for an expansion in April, which was met with opposition from other ride-hail companies. Since Waymos, as well as Uber and Lyft’s black cars, are categorized as commercial vehicles, they’ve not been legally obligated to stay off the car-free section of Market Street under SFMTA traffic regulations. Waymo confirmed in April that it had voluntarily refrained from operating there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Uber and Lyft driver drops off a customer in San Francisco’s downtown neighborhood on Aug. 31, 2015. \u003ccite>(Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and overnight from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., Waymo can drop off and pick up passengers at seven locations along Market Street, between 5th and 8th streets. They’ll be allowed to run on the two-mile strip between Van Ness Avenue and Steuart Street, where cars are barred, according to SFMTA Director Julie Kirschbaum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber and Lyft black cars, the apps’ top-line rides that offer a more luxurious experience at a higher price tag, will be allowed to pick up passengers at those locations during the evening and night hours, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Both apps require drivers to meet certain car standards: the cars have to be black, and Lyft prohibits vehicles older than 2018, while Uber requires them to be models made within the last five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area where these vehicles will begin operating is a sector of Market Street that has been closed to cars since January 2020, following more than a decade of advocacy to remove cars from the busy downtown road.[aside postID=news_12035348 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/230921-TaxiDriver-10-BL-1020x680.jpg']In a statement, Lurie said, “The city will monitor Muni performance, traffic conditions, safety incidents, and Waymo, Uber Black, and Lyft Black’s performance through shared data and street traffic observations,” to decide how best to increase safe transportation through all modes in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Pam said data shows banning cars from the road has already benefited non-drivers. Since 2020, she said, SFMTA found that traffic collisions on the road \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2023/05/san_francisco_collisions_report_2017_2022.pdf\">fell by 40%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people who are going to lose are the hundreds of thousands of people who take Muni, who walk and bike downtown every day, versus a couple dozen people traveling in these luxury vehicles,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those reliant on Muni to get downtown are already adjusting to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021178/sf-muni-reducing-bus-light-rail-service-amid-fiscal-crisis-more-cuts-loom\">service cuts along Market\u003c/a> that went into effect in June. As the city agency struggles to recover from a plummet in ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12014573/sf-muni-dire-need-funding-without-cuts-could-be-devastating\">facing a dire financial crisis\u003c/a> that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041824/bay-area-transit-faces-a-fiscal-crisis-newsoms-budget-plan-could-make-it-worse\">threatens to force even more cuts\u003c/a> in future years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the last two months, three lines that used to run all the way down to the Embarcadero from various city neighborhoods have begun turning back when they reach Market Street. Two other routes headed toward the Bay from the Inner Sunset and the northeast edge of Golden Gate Park were combined into a new Muni line, which also now ends when it hits the street. After feedback from residents, Muni is \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/blog/supporting-trips-school-and-work-muni-service-changes-start-aug-30\">restoring two morning trips\u003c/a> on the 1X California Express and adding one trip on the 30X Marina Express into downtown on Aug. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11734349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11734349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty.jpg\" alt=\"An SUV in San Francisco displaying the Lyft logo in its back window.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An SUV in San Francisco displays the Lyft logo. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“At a time when Muni is facing an enormous fiscal crisis and we’re already cutting service, to make Market more congested with vehicles and slow down Muni and make it less efficient is really not the direction the city needs to go in,” Pam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Market Street has wide sidewalks designated for foot traffic, Marta Lindsey, WalkSF’s communications director, said increased vehicle traffic will increase collision risks for pedestrians, especially in crosswalks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re crossing the street one of the biggest risks is turning vehicles,” she said. “Bringing back vehicles is less of a risk to someone walking on the sidewalk, but it’s bringing back all this intersection chaos and maneuvers that really put pedestrians at risk.”[aside postID=news_12050242 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-MARINEBIKES-03-KQED-1.jpg']She said people entering and exiting buses will also have to navigate more cars on the road, and even walking on the sidewalk could become more risky if more bikers migrate off the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While cycling groups have done copious work to ensure bicyclists don’t use pedestrian-only sidewalks, Christopher White, who heads the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, said it’s much more difficult when there aren’t designated spaces for people on bikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>East of 8th Street, which accounts for much of the area that’s been car-free, there aren’t separate biking lanes, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have invested an enormous amount of resources trying to teach people that [the sidewalk] is not where bikes and scooters belong, but it is also the rational choice when people don’t have protected infrastructure,” he said. “More cars will cause people to feel less safe on their bikes and scooters. That is going to drive them onto the sidewalk, and that is going to put in danger people who are walking, particularly seniors, people with disabilities, and children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current expansion is fairly limited and doesn’t actually change any city law. Both banning the commercial vehicles outright or allowing all private vehicles back onto the road would need to go through more rigorous channels, but many of the advocates who’ve formed the Keep Market Street Moving coalition to oppose the expansion fear it will only be a matter of time before the road is hopping with cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple advocates told KQED they already see private vehicles on prohibited parts of the street fairly often, and with some Uber and Lyft operators in standard cars allowed to operate, enforcement of the rules will only become more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think people have forgotten how chaotic and dangerous Market was,” Lindsey said. “We cannot go back to how dangerous and chaotic it was, and these changes are opening up the door to going back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:57 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five years after safe street advocates celebrated San Francisco’s decision to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11797529/san-franciscos-market-street-is-going-car-free-next-week-7-things-you-need-to-know\">make Market Street \u003c/a>car-free, cars — both with and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035348/mayor-lurie-allows-waymo-on-sfs-car-free-market-street\">without drivers\u003c/a> — will begin rolling down the thoroughfare on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie said Wednesday that his office was granting Waymo autonomous vehicles and some Uber and Lyft cars access to the two-mile vehicle-free span of the street as part of his push to revitalize downtown. But Robin Pam, the executive director of Streets for All San Francisco, says the limited, and likely expensive, vehicle expansion will only harm the corridor’s long-desired transformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Putting cars back on Market is really a big step backwards, and it’s going to prevent us from making progress toward that vision of a more vibrant people-first space that really will attract more people to come downtown and want to be there,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pilot phase that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency starts Tuesday will test the impact of Waymo and some Uber and Lyft operations on Market Street outside peak commute hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move comes after Lurie gave Waymo permission to begin mapping the street for an expansion in April, which was met with opposition from other ride-hail companies. Since Waymos, as well as Uber and Lyft’s black cars, are categorized as commercial vehicles, they’ve not been legally obligated to stay off the car-free section of Market Street under SFMTA traffic regulations. Waymo confirmed in April that it had voluntarily refrained from operating there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_0527_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Uber and Lyft driver drops off a customer in San Francisco’s downtown neighborhood on Aug. 31, 2015. \u003ccite>(Ericka Cruz Guevarra/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and overnight from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., Waymo can drop off and pick up passengers at seven locations along Market Street, between 5th and 8th streets. They’ll be allowed to run on the two-mile strip between Van Ness Avenue and Steuart Street, where cars are barred, according to SFMTA Director Julie Kirschbaum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber and Lyft black cars, the apps’ top-line rides that offer a more luxurious experience at a higher price tag, will be allowed to pick up passengers at those locations during the evening and night hours, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Both apps require drivers to meet certain car standards: the cars have to be black, and Lyft prohibits vehicles older than 2018, while Uber requires them to be models made within the last five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area where these vehicles will begin operating is a sector of Market Street that has been closed to cars since January 2020, following more than a decade of advocacy to remove cars from the busy downtown road.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In a statement, Lurie said, “The city will monitor Muni performance, traffic conditions, safety incidents, and Waymo, Uber Black, and Lyft Black’s performance through shared data and street traffic observations,” to decide how best to increase safe transportation through all modes in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Pam said data shows banning cars from the road has already benefited non-drivers. Since 2020, she said, SFMTA found that traffic collisions on the road \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2023/05/san_francisco_collisions_report_2017_2022.pdf\">fell by 40%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people who are going to lose are the hundreds of thousands of people who take Muni, who walk and bike downtown every day, versus a couple dozen people traveling in these luxury vehicles,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those reliant on Muni to get downtown are already adjusting to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021178/sf-muni-reducing-bus-light-rail-service-amid-fiscal-crisis-more-cuts-loom\">service cuts along Market\u003c/a> that went into effect in June. As the city agency struggles to recover from a plummet in ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12014573/sf-muni-dire-need-funding-without-cuts-could-be-devastating\">facing a dire financial crisis\u003c/a> that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041824/bay-area-transit-faces-a-fiscal-crisis-newsoms-budget-plan-could-make-it-worse\">threatens to force even more cuts\u003c/a> in future years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the last two months, three lines that used to run all the way down to the Embarcadero from various city neighborhoods have begun turning back when they reach Market Street. Two other routes headed toward the Bay from the Inner Sunset and the northeast edge of Golden Gate Park were combined into a new Muni line, which also now ends when it hits the street. After feedback from residents, Muni is \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/blog/supporting-trips-school-and-work-muni-service-changes-start-aug-30\">restoring two morning trips\u003c/a> on the 1X California Express and adding one trip on the 30X Marina Express into downtown on Aug. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11734349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11734349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty.jpg\" alt=\"An SUV in San Francisco displaying the Lyft logo in its back window.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/lyft-getty-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An SUV in San Francisco displays the Lyft logo. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“At a time when Muni is facing an enormous fiscal crisis and we’re already cutting service, to make Market more congested with vehicles and slow down Muni and make it less efficient is really not the direction the city needs to go in,” Pam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Market Street has wide sidewalks designated for foot traffic, Marta Lindsey, WalkSF’s communications director, said increased vehicle traffic will increase collision risks for pedestrians, especially in crosswalks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re crossing the street one of the biggest risks is turning vehicles,” she said. “Bringing back vehicles is less of a risk to someone walking on the sidewalk, but it’s bringing back all this intersection chaos and maneuvers that really put pedestrians at risk.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>She said people entering and exiting buses will also have to navigate more cars on the road, and even walking on the sidewalk could become more risky if more bikers migrate off the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While cycling groups have done copious work to ensure bicyclists don’t use pedestrian-only sidewalks, Christopher White, who heads the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, said it’s much more difficult when there aren’t designated spaces for people on bikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>East of 8th Street, which accounts for much of the area that’s been car-free, there aren’t separate biking lanes, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have invested an enormous amount of resources trying to teach people that [the sidewalk] is not where bikes and scooters belong, but it is also the rational choice when people don’t have protected infrastructure,” he said. “More cars will cause people to feel less safe on their bikes and scooters. That is going to drive them onto the sidewalk, and that is going to put in danger people who are walking, particularly seniors, people with disabilities, and children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current expansion is fairly limited and doesn’t actually change any city law. Both banning the commercial vehicles outright or allowing all private vehicles back onto the road would need to go through more rigorous channels, but many of the advocates who’ve formed the Keep Market Street Moving coalition to oppose the expansion fear it will only be a matter of time before the road is hopping with cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple advocates told KQED they already see private vehicles on prohibited parts of the street fairly often, and with some Uber and Lyft operators in standard cars allowed to operate, enforcement of the rules will only become more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think people have forgotten how chaotic and dangerous Market was,” Lindsey said. “We cannot go back to how dangerous and chaotic it was, and these changes are opening up the door to going back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The other day, I logged into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/facebook\">Facebook\u003c/a> and searched for ride-share and delivery accounts for sale. As the cartoon dog \u003cem>Scooby Doo\u003c/em> likes to say: “Ruh-roh.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/for-sale-on-facebook-fraudulent-uber-driver-accounts\">report \u003c/a>out this week from the non-profit watchdog Tech Transparency Project identified 80 Facebook groups with more than 800,000 users collectively that trade in driver accounts for Uber, DoorDash and other ride-share and delivery apps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This black market allows people to acquire driver accounts for Uber and other services without going through the required screening process or even having a valid driver’s license,” the researchers wrote. “Meta is failing to meet its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020606/meta-ends-fact-checking-ahead-of-2nd-trump-term\">new, lowered bar\u003c/a> for policy enforcement by hosting a thriving trade in fraudulent Uber driver accounts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the report, TPP researchers created a new Facebook account and began typing “uber account” into the platform’s search bar. Before the words had been fully typed in, Facebook auto-populated “uber account for rent” as the first suggested search term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That led researchers to dozens of Facebook groups where users sought or offered up active Uber, DoorDash or Deliveroo accounts. Prices vary, but accounts commonly go for $350- 430 for sale or $115 for rent every 30 days, according to the report. Users often posted publicly in the groups to advertise or ask for an account. Once they received a response, the requesters often suggested moving the conversation out of public view to direct messages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008321\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008321\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1240\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-800x496.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-1020x632.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-1536x952.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-1920x1190.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Lyft car crosses Market Street in San Francisco on Feb. 8, 2018. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s particularly concerning when you think about the fact that many of the people that engage in these groups or are looking to rent accounts are people that would not be able to pass a background check or a criminal check to get an account to drive Uber,” said Katie Paul, director of TPP, which has been researching black markets on social media for several years. “It really thwarts a lot of the safeguards that companies like Uber, DoorDash and others have in place to try to protect consumers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta did not get back to KQED with a comment in time for this story, but the company does have a publicly posted \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/fraud-scams\">Fraud, Scams, and Deceptive Practices policy\u003c/a> that promises the removal of content that “purposefully employs deceptive means — such as wilful misrepresentation, stolen information and exaggerated claims — to either scam or defraud users and businesses, or to drive engagement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a January post by Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, announcing looser rules governing political content, \u003ca href=\"https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/\">he wrote\u003c/a>: “We have been using automated systems to scan for all policy violations, but this has resulted in too many mistakes and too much content being censored that shouldn’t have been. So, we’re going to continue to focus these systems on tackling illegal and high-severity violations, like terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud and scams.”[aside postID=news_11895742 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/GettyImages-1236188328-1-1020x568.jpg']Paul argued that the infiltration of the black market in account fraud extends beyond posts on Facebook. It’s also in the advertising, Meta’s primary revenue driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ads are notable because they’re one of the only things on the platform that are actually reviewed and approved before they are run,” Paul said. “Even if they later removed them, the company had still made their money in the process. The fact that they haven’t addressed this is largely because there are no regulations in place that require them to do so. So as we’re seeing a failure of regulatory enforcement or efforts on the part of Congress, we see these companies becoming more and more lax in the way that they moderate explicitly illegal or harmful content on their platforms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul also argues that Facebook is structurally worse than other social media platforms in terms of enabling black market behavior because of the platform’s global reach, and the ease of finding groups, which she describes as “the perfect digital toolkit for these black market traffickers of, really, anything you can think of, whether it’s human smuggling, account trafficking, antiquities trafficking. You can easily search — name the bad thing — and the words for sale, and dozens of groups pop up immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, Paul adds, the actors move transactional conversations to more secure apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, which are both also owned by Meta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11951943\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11951943\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The Meta booth at the Game Developers Conference 2023 in San Francisco.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Despite heavy lobbying by Mark Zuckerberg to avoid a trial, the Federal Trade Commission’s case against Meta began Monday, alleging the company violated competition laws with its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Meta really owns the entire cycle of the issue there, including the final communications for delivery of whatever that black market trade is. With Google, if you’re talking about search ads, for instance, they could direct you to a website, but you’re not going to get that same level of anonymity or the kind of protected functionality that you see on Facebook,” Paul said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food delivery services, in particular, have faced regulatory scrutiny over concerns about unauthorized account sharing. As of March 1, 2025, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB375\">AB-375\u003c/a> requires third-party food delivery platforms like San Francisco-based DoorDash and UberEats to provide the customer with the first name and photo of their driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re deactivating more fraudulent accounts, conducting more real-time identity checks and preventing more offenders from returning,” DoorDash spokesperson Julian Crowley wrote KQED in a statement. Even before the new state law came into effect, DoorDash introduced a more robust system for flagging unauthorized drivers in Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle and other cities late last year.[aside postID=news_11965403 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231019-GazaRally-011-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg']Crowley added, “While many of these ‘ads’ are scams for accounts that don’t actually exist, we take all fraud seriously. Our teams actively monitor for suspicious activity — including ads for fraudulent accounts — and take action. We’ve reached out to Meta to collaborate in dismantling these groups and stand ready to work with enforcement to hold fraudsters accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Account sharing is never allowed, and we have robust safeguards in place from account creation to trip completion designed to help verify that the person using an account is the rightful owner,” an Uber spokesperson said in an email. “In the US, all drivers and couriers must pass a background check, provide a valid photo ID and Social Security Number, and regularly verify their identity through our Real-Time ID Check, which uses selfies to confirm that the person behind the wheel or making a delivery is the same person that passed our multi-step screening process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Wired\u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/priscila-queen-of-the-rideshare-mafia/\"> profiled\u003c/a> a woman who made thousands of dollars fraudulently renting out Uber and DoorDash accounts before being arrested after Uber tipped off the FBI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.lyft.com/terms\">Lyft’s\u003c/a> Terms of Service strictly prohibit fraudulent activity of any kind, including account sharing or buying and selling Lyft accounts, and such behavior can and does lead to a permanent ban from the platform,” a Lyft spokesperson wrote KQED. “We have robust policies in place—including rigorous and thorough background checks and screenings for every driver—to help prevent fraudulent activity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have led the industry in taking action to secure our platform, and were the first major delivery platform to roll out direct right to work checks, a registration process, daily identity verification and now additional device checks for riders, including substitutes,” wrote a Deliveroo spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the California attorney general’s office, sometimes in conjunction with city or district attorneys, has cracked down on ride-share and food delivery companies in the recent past, it’s been for issues like \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-and-city-attorneys-los-angeles-san-diego-and-san-0\">classification \u003c/a>of workers, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/california-attorney-general-becerra-san-francisco-district-attorney-gasc%C3%B3n\">data breach\u003c/a> cover-ups and \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-settlement-doordash-investigation-finds-company#:~:text=The%20investigation%20by%20the%20California%20Department%20of,violation%20of%20both%20the%20CCPA%20and%20CalOPPA.\">consumer privacy\u003c/a>, not unauthorized account access. When queried directly about that issue, a spokesman for the AG’s office wrote, “To protect their integrity, we’re unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, any potential or ongoing investigations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The other day, I logged into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/facebook\">Facebook\u003c/a> and searched for ride-share and delivery accounts for sale. As the cartoon dog \u003cem>Scooby Doo\u003c/em> likes to say: “Ruh-roh.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/for-sale-on-facebook-fraudulent-uber-driver-accounts\">report \u003c/a>out this week from the non-profit watchdog Tech Transparency Project identified 80 Facebook groups with more than 800,000 users collectively that trade in driver accounts for Uber, DoorDash and other ride-share and delivery apps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This black market allows people to acquire driver accounts for Uber and other services without going through the required screening process or even having a valid driver’s license,” the researchers wrote. “Meta is failing to meet its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020606/meta-ends-fact-checking-ahead-of-2nd-trump-term\">new, lowered bar\u003c/a> for policy enforcement by hosting a thriving trade in fraudulent Uber driver accounts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the report, TPP researchers created a new Facebook account and began typing “uber account” into the platform’s search bar. Before the words had been fully typed in, Facebook auto-populated “uber account for rent” as the first suggested search term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That led researchers to dozens of Facebook groups where users sought or offered up active Uber, DoorDash or Deliveroo accounts. Prices vary, but accounts commonly go for $350- 430 for sale or $115 for rent every 30 days, according to the report. Users often posted publicly in the groups to advertise or ask for an account. Once they received a response, the requesters often suggested moving the conversation out of public view to direct messages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008321\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008321\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1240\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-800x496.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-1020x632.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-1536x952.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFLyftDriverAP-1920x1190.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Lyft car crosses Market Street in San Francisco on Feb. 8, 2018. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s particularly concerning when you think about the fact that many of the people that engage in these groups or are looking to rent accounts are people that would not be able to pass a background check or a criminal check to get an account to drive Uber,” said Katie Paul, director of TPP, which has been researching black markets on social media for several years. “It really thwarts a lot of the safeguards that companies like Uber, DoorDash and others have in place to try to protect consumers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta did not get back to KQED with a comment in time for this story, but the company does have a publicly posted \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/fraud-scams\">Fraud, Scams, and Deceptive Practices policy\u003c/a> that promises the removal of content that “purposefully employs deceptive means — such as wilful misrepresentation, stolen information and exaggerated claims — to either scam or defraud users and businesses, or to drive engagement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a January post by Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, announcing looser rules governing political content, \u003ca href=\"https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/\">he wrote\u003c/a>: “We have been using automated systems to scan for all policy violations, but this has resulted in too many mistakes and too much content being censored that shouldn’t have been. So, we’re going to continue to focus these systems on tackling illegal and high-severity violations, like terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud and scams.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Paul argued that the infiltration of the black market in account fraud extends beyond posts on Facebook. It’s also in the advertising, Meta’s primary revenue driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ads are notable because they’re one of the only things on the platform that are actually reviewed and approved before they are run,” Paul said. “Even if they later removed them, the company had still made their money in the process. The fact that they haven’t addressed this is largely because there are no regulations in place that require them to do so. So as we’re seeing a failure of regulatory enforcement or efforts on the part of Congress, we see these companies becoming more and more lax in the way that they moderate explicitly illegal or harmful content on their platforms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul also argues that Facebook is structurally worse than other social media platforms in terms of enabling black market behavior because of the platform’s global reach, and the ease of finding groups, which she describes as “the perfect digital toolkit for these black market traffickers of, really, anything you can think of, whether it’s human smuggling, account trafficking, antiquities trafficking. You can easily search — name the bad thing — and the words for sale, and dozens of groups pop up immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, Paul adds, the actors move transactional conversations to more secure apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, which are both also owned by Meta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11951943\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11951943\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The Meta booth at the Game Developers Conference 2023 in San Francisco.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/060123-Meta-Facebook-Instagram-AP-JC-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Despite heavy lobbying by Mark Zuckerberg to avoid a trial, the Federal Trade Commission’s case against Meta began Monday, alleging the company violated competition laws with its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Meta really owns the entire cycle of the issue there, including the final communications for delivery of whatever that black market trade is. With Google, if you’re talking about search ads, for instance, they could direct you to a website, but you’re not going to get that same level of anonymity or the kind of protected functionality that you see on Facebook,” Paul said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food delivery services, in particular, have faced regulatory scrutiny over concerns about unauthorized account sharing. As of March 1, 2025, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB375\">AB-375\u003c/a> requires third-party food delivery platforms like San Francisco-based DoorDash and UberEats to provide the customer with the first name and photo of their driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re deactivating more fraudulent accounts, conducting more real-time identity checks and preventing more offenders from returning,” DoorDash spokesperson Julian Crowley wrote KQED in a statement. Even before the new state law came into effect, DoorDash introduced a more robust system for flagging unauthorized drivers in Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle and other cities late last year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Crowley added, “While many of these ‘ads’ are scams for accounts that don’t actually exist, we take all fraud seriously. Our teams actively monitor for suspicious activity — including ads for fraudulent accounts — and take action. We’ve reached out to Meta to collaborate in dismantling these groups and stand ready to work with enforcement to hold fraudsters accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Account sharing is never allowed, and we have robust safeguards in place from account creation to trip completion designed to help verify that the person using an account is the rightful owner,” an Uber spokesperson said in an email. “In the US, all drivers and couriers must pass a background check, provide a valid photo ID and Social Security Number, and regularly verify their identity through our Real-Time ID Check, which uses selfies to confirm that the person behind the wheel or making a delivery is the same person that passed our multi-step screening process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Wired\u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/priscila-queen-of-the-rideshare-mafia/\"> profiled\u003c/a> a woman who made thousands of dollars fraudulently renting out Uber and DoorDash accounts before being arrested after Uber tipped off the FBI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.lyft.com/terms\">Lyft’s\u003c/a> Terms of Service strictly prohibit fraudulent activity of any kind, including account sharing or buying and selling Lyft accounts, and such behavior can and does lead to a permanent ban from the platform,” a Lyft spokesperson wrote KQED. “We have robust policies in place—including rigorous and thorough background checks and screenings for every driver—to help prevent fraudulent activity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have led the industry in taking action to secure our platform, and were the first major delivery platform to roll out direct right to work checks, a registration process, daily identity verification and now additional device checks for riders, including substitutes,” wrote a Deliveroo spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the California attorney general’s office, sometimes in conjunction with city or district attorneys, has cracked down on ride-share and food delivery companies in the recent past, it’s been for issues like \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-and-city-attorneys-los-angeles-san-diego-and-san-0\">classification \u003c/a>of workers, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/california-attorney-general-becerra-san-francisco-district-attorney-gasc%C3%B3n\">data breach\u003c/a> cover-ups and \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-settlement-doordash-investigation-finds-company#:~:text=The%20investigation%20by%20the%20California%20Department%20of,violation%20of%20both%20the%20CCPA%20and%20CalOPPA.\">consumer privacy\u003c/a>, not unauthorized account access. When queried directly about that issue, a spokesman for the AG’s office wrote, “To protect their integrity, we’re unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, any potential or ongoing investigations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 2:23 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are introducing a bill that would allow drivers for ride-hailing apps to bargain collectively over pay and working conditions, even as they remain classified as independent contractors for companies such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033648/uber-lyft-withheld-billions-in-pay-california-alleges-settlement-talks-are-underway\">Uber and Lyft\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the measure, announced Tuesday at a rally with dozens of drivers near the state Capitol, unions that are certified by the state would be able to negotiate with app-based transportation companies on behalf of drivers to resolve disputes and improve working conditions. The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency would enforce the provisions, though details on the process have not yet been worked out, according to a draft of the bill reviewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Independent contractors are not entitled to employee benefits such as minimum wage and overtime. They are also excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, a federal law that grants most private-sector employees the right to collectively bargain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed legislation, AB 1340, would not cover delivery drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), who are among several Democratic co-authors of the bill, spoke at Tuesday’s rally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We stand for the right of every worker to truly have a voice,” Wicks told the crowd of people holding signs that read “Gig Drivers Union Now.” “We’re here today to talk about respecting the voices of our rideshare drivers and offering you the choice to build power in your union. To build power for better wages, to build power for better working conditions, to build power for financial stability in your homes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033651\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033651\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uber drivers and advocates rally outside the company’s driver support center in South San José on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Service Employees International Union, which supports AB 1340, backed a similar initiative in Massachusetts that \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/massachusetts-voters-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-unionize-2024-11-06/#:~:text=BOSTON%2C%20Nov%206%20(Reuters),based%20companies%20like%20Uber%20(UBER.\">voters approved\u003c/a> last fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, Uber, Lyft and other gig companies spent more than $200 million to back \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12002988/some-gig-workers-say-they-are-seeing-little-of-prop-22-promises-and-lack-of-enforcement-from-state\">Proposition 22\u003c/a>, a 2020 ballot initiative that exempted them from having to classify their drivers as employees. Studies show employers often save money by hiring independent contractors, as they generally avoid paying for payroll taxes and employee benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Drivers overwhelmingly voted for and continue to support Prop. 22 because it is their preferred way to structure benefits and protections,” a Lyft spokesperson said in a statement. “And for years, we’ve been building upon this framework to roll out new products and features designed to improve the driver experience.”[aside postID=news_12034478 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-1020x680.jpg']As part of Proposition 22, the gig companies promised that drivers would receive at least 120% of the local minimum wage while giving a ride or doing a delivery, a health care stipend of up to $426 for those that qualified, and accident insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An Uber spokesperson said AB 1340, if implemented, would end up increasing the price of rides and suggested that most drivers’ voices may be left out of a union process because only a small proportion work a significant number of hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pointed to \u003ca href=\"https://protectdriversandservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/BRG-Economic-Impact-Analysis_FINAL_1.21.25.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a report (PDF)\u003c/a> by the Berkeley Research Group, a consulting firm, that found only 7% of drivers for app-based ride and delivery platforms worked more than 20 hours per week. The research was commissioned by Protect App-Based Drivers & Services, a group that counts Uber and Lyft among its members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Californians are already feeling the squeeze — and this proposal would drive up rideshare costs even more while threatening the flexible jobs thousands depend on,” the Uber spokesperson said. “Drivers have been clear: they want to stay independent and keep the freedom to choose when and how they work, with access to meaningful benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, at the Sacramento rally, several drivers said their payment for rides has dropped as Uber and Lyft keep a greater share of what customers pay. A \u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/gig-passenger-and-delivery-driver-pay-in-five-metro-areas/\">report by the UC Berkeley Labor Center\u003c/a> last year found that ride-hail drivers in the San Francisco Bay and four other metro areas made less than minimum wage after taking into account expenses and wait times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11770515\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11770515\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1457\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut-800x607.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut-1020x774.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut-1200x911.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uber and Lyft drivers rallied at Uber headquarters in San Francisco in August 2019 before heading to Sacramento to push for legislation classifying them as employees. \u003ccite>(Sruti Mamidanna/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nick Calabar Jr. of Stockton said that when he started driving for Uber and Lyft 16 years ago, the pay was decent, but now it’s a struggle to survive. During a ride last week that cost the customer $60, Lyft only paid him $14, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How is that fair? I do all the work, pay for the cost of my car payment each month, cost of charging my vehicle, and not to mention taking all the risks,” Calabar said. “Like thousands of rideshare drivers, working for Uber or Lyft isn’t just a side gig, it’s our job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort to carve a new path for ride-hail drivers to collectively bargain in California comes as attorneys for the state and the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego are meeting Tuesday for a closed-door \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033648/uber-lyft-withheld-billions-in-pay-california-alleges-settlement-talks-are-underway\">mediation session\u003c/a> with Lyft. Another is planned with Uber for next month.[aside postID=news_12033648 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-1020x680.jpg']The negotiations stem from yearslong lawsuits by the California labor commissioner’s office, as well as the attorney general’s office and the three cities. Those legal challenges allege Uber and Lyft owe potentially billions of dollars in wages and damages to drivers misclassified as independent contractors before Proposition 22 passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, Massachusetts \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/massachusetts-voters-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-unionize-2024-11-06/#:~:text=BOSTON%2C%20Nov%206%20(Reuters),based%20companies%20like%20Uber%20(UBER.\">became the first state\u003c/a> to allow ride-hail drivers to unionize as independent contractors. The companies did not formally oppose that measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Massachusetts Department of Labor is drafting regulations on the nuts and bolts of how the measure will work, including what happens if negotiations break down or what behavior constitutes as an unfair labor practice, said Maria O’Brien, who teaches employment law at Boston University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even though Uber and Lyft did not formally oppose this, I would be very surprised if they simply rolled over once the regs are issued,” O’Brien said, pointing to companies’ track record of fighting policies they perceived as threats to their revenue and profits. “It wouldn’t surprise me, depending on what the regulations say, if you were to see lawsuits from Uber and Lyft.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the estimated 70,000 ride-hail drivers in that state, an option to engage in collective negotiations could build on gains achieved through a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mass.gov/info-details/uber-and-lyft-settlement-information-and-frequently-asked-questions\">settlement \u003c/a>between the Massachusetts attorney general’s office and Uber and Lyft last year, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In that deal, the companies agreed to pay a combined total of $175 million, most of it in restitution to drivers who were underpaid. Uber and Lyft must also compensate drivers at least $33.48 per hour for time spent picking up and driving a customer, an amount that will be adjusted annually for inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that the drivers themselves view the settlement as a promising first step, but view the union as a mechanism by which they’re going to get increases going forward,” O’Brien said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 2:23 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are introducing a bill that would allow drivers for ride-hailing apps to bargain collectively over pay and working conditions, even as they remain classified as independent contractors for companies such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033648/uber-lyft-withheld-billions-in-pay-california-alleges-settlement-talks-are-underway\">Uber and Lyft\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the measure, announced Tuesday at a rally with dozens of drivers near the state Capitol, unions that are certified by the state would be able to negotiate with app-based transportation companies on behalf of drivers to resolve disputes and improve working conditions. The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency would enforce the provisions, though details on the process have not yet been worked out, according to a draft of the bill reviewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Independent contractors are not entitled to employee benefits such as minimum wage and overtime. They are also excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, a federal law that grants most private-sector employees the right to collectively bargain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed legislation, AB 1340, would not cover delivery drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), who are among several Democratic co-authors of the bill, spoke at Tuesday’s rally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We stand for the right of every worker to truly have a voice,” Wicks told the crowd of people holding signs that read “Gig Drivers Union Now.” “We’re here today to talk about respecting the voices of our rideshare drivers and offering you the choice to build power in your union. To build power for better wages, to build power for better working conditions, to build power for financial stability in your homes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033651\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033651\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240625-UBERSANJOSE-JG-1-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uber drivers and advocates rally outside the company’s driver support center in South San José on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Service Employees International Union, which supports AB 1340, backed a similar initiative in Massachusetts that \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/massachusetts-voters-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-unionize-2024-11-06/#:~:text=BOSTON%2C%20Nov%206%20(Reuters),based%20companies%20like%20Uber%20(UBER.\">voters approved\u003c/a> last fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, Uber, Lyft and other gig companies spent more than $200 million to back \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12002988/some-gig-workers-say-they-are-seeing-little-of-prop-22-promises-and-lack-of-enforcement-from-state\">Proposition 22\u003c/a>, a 2020 ballot initiative that exempted them from having to classify their drivers as employees. Studies show employers often save money by hiring independent contractors, as they generally avoid paying for payroll taxes and employee benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Drivers overwhelmingly voted for and continue to support Prop. 22 because it is their preferred way to structure benefits and protections,” a Lyft spokesperson said in a statement. “And for years, we’ve been building upon this framework to roll out new products and features designed to improve the driver experience.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As part of Proposition 22, the gig companies promised that drivers would receive at least 120% of the local minimum wage while giving a ride or doing a delivery, a health care stipend of up to $426 for those that qualified, and accident insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An Uber spokesperson said AB 1340, if implemented, would end up increasing the price of rides and suggested that most drivers’ voices may be left out of a union process because only a small proportion work a significant number of hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pointed to \u003ca href=\"https://protectdriversandservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/BRG-Economic-Impact-Analysis_FINAL_1.21.25.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a report (PDF)\u003c/a> by the Berkeley Research Group, a consulting firm, that found only 7% of drivers for app-based ride and delivery platforms worked more than 20 hours per week. The research was commissioned by Protect App-Based Drivers & Services, a group that counts Uber and Lyft among its members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Californians are already feeling the squeeze — and this proposal would drive up rideshare costs even more while threatening the flexible jobs thousands depend on,” the Uber spokesperson said. “Drivers have been clear: they want to stay independent and keep the freedom to choose when and how they work, with access to meaningful benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, at the Sacramento rally, several drivers said their payment for rides has dropped as Uber and Lyft keep a greater share of what customers pay. A \u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/gig-passenger-and-delivery-driver-pay-in-five-metro-areas/\">report by the UC Berkeley Labor Center\u003c/a> last year found that ride-hail drivers in the San Francisco Bay and four other metro areas made less than minimum wage after taking into account expenses and wait times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11770515\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11770515\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1457\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut-800x607.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut-1020x774.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/RS38759__M6A2447-qut-1200x911.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uber and Lyft drivers rallied at Uber headquarters in San Francisco in August 2019 before heading to Sacramento to push for legislation classifying them as employees. \u003ccite>(Sruti Mamidanna/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nick Calabar Jr. of Stockton said that when he started driving for Uber and Lyft 16 years ago, the pay was decent, but now it’s a struggle to survive. During a ride last week that cost the customer $60, Lyft only paid him $14, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How is that fair? I do all the work, pay for the cost of my car payment each month, cost of charging my vehicle, and not to mention taking all the risks,” Calabar said. “Like thousands of rideshare drivers, working for Uber or Lyft isn’t just a side gig, it’s our job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort to carve a new path for ride-hail drivers to collectively bargain in California comes as attorneys for the state and the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego are meeting Tuesday for a closed-door \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033648/uber-lyft-withheld-billions-in-pay-california-alleges-settlement-talks-are-underway\">mediation session\u003c/a> with Lyft. Another is planned with Uber for next month.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The negotiations stem from yearslong lawsuits by the California labor commissioner’s office, as well as the attorney general’s office and the three cities. Those legal challenges allege Uber and Lyft owe potentially billions of dollars in wages and damages to drivers misclassified as independent contractors before Proposition 22 passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall, Massachusetts \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/massachusetts-voters-allow-uber-lyft-drivers-unionize-2024-11-06/#:~:text=BOSTON%2C%20Nov%206%20(Reuters),based%20companies%20like%20Uber%20(UBER.\">became the first state\u003c/a> to allow ride-hail drivers to unionize as independent contractors. The companies did not formally oppose that measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Massachusetts Department of Labor is drafting regulations on the nuts and bolts of how the measure will work, including what happens if negotiations break down or what behavior constitutes as an unfair labor practice, said Maria O’Brien, who teaches employment law at Boston University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even though Uber and Lyft did not formally oppose this, I would be very surprised if they simply rolled over once the regs are issued,” O’Brien said, pointing to companies’ track record of fighting policies they perceived as threats to their revenue and profits. “It wouldn’t surprise me, depending on what the regulations say, if you were to see lawsuits from Uber and Lyft.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the estimated 70,000 ride-hail drivers in that state, an option to engage in collective negotiations could build on gains achieved through a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mass.gov/info-details/uber-and-lyft-settlement-information-and-frequently-asked-questions\">settlement \u003c/a>between the Massachusetts attorney general’s office and Uber and Lyft last year, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In that deal, the companies agreed to pay a combined total of $175 million, most of it in restitution to drivers who were underpaid. Uber and Lyft must also compensate drivers at least $33.48 per hour for time spent picking up and driving a customer, an amount that will be adjusted annually for inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that the drivers themselves view the settlement as a promising first step, but view the union as a mechanism by which they’re going to get increases going forward,” O’Brien said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"order": 11
},
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"on-the-media": {
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
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"order": 14
},
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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