Unionization has been and is key to transforming the economic prospects of Black workers without a college degree, said Steven Pitts, the emeritus associate chair at the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

“The Omicron variant brings many of these issues back,” Jacobs said. “Frontline retail and restaurant workers are again facing difficult decisions about health risks and the need to put food on their own tables.”

Similar to Prop 22, the proposed Massachusetts ballot initiative presents a minimum earnings guarantee of “120 percent of minimum wage” based on “engaged time,” meaning the only time counted is when a driver is fulfilling a ride or delivery request but not the time they spend waiting for a gig.

Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center at Institute for Research on Labor Employment, says it’s “fairly likely” Biden’s NLRB will eventually weigh in on the gig workers’ battle with companies like Uber.

“Customer interaction has always been two-edged. It’s been a source of frustration, but also a source of gratification,” said Françoise Carré. “Here, you have the tediousness and the pressure, but you don’t have any gratification in terms of interpersonal contact.”

“We have lots of low-wage, service workers who are working through the Covid crisis, many of whom are in jobs with a greater risk of transmission,” said Ken Jacobs, chair of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California-Berkeley. “This will be a very welcome boost for them. As well, a lot of families are struggling right now in this crisis.”

“Do you believe for one second that these companies are spending $180 million on a ballot measure that’s going to benefit drivers more than it benefits Uber-Lyft-DoorDash’s bottom line?”