McAlevey said including a broad spectrum of workers at the bargaining table through tools like Zoom has been successful for unions and is common without any legal pushback. She said unions can benefit from having rank-and-file members informed of the talks, even though unions should as a rule have only negotiators speak during bargaining sessions.

A study from the UC Berkeley Labor Center shows unpaid waiting time means drivers would earn only about a quarter of the hourly rate the ballot initiative’s proponents say.

Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center, said that in deciding on the provisions, the parliamentarian should take into account economic studies and analytical gauges such as dynamic scoring, which considers the macroeconomic effects of policy changes on revenue.

Uber and Lyft would have contributed more than $400 million to California’s unemployment insurance fund since 2014 had they classified hundreds of thousands of drivers as employees instead of independent contractors.