Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley speaks at an event in East Boston with the Massachusetts is not for sale coalition.

Yesterday, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) announced her support for the growing coalition of consumer, civil rights, and labor advocates opposing a Big Tech sponsored ballot initiative aiming to rewrite key worker and consumer protection laws in Massachusetts. Congresswoman Pressley and Senator Lydia Edwards took to the stage at a gathering inside an East Boston community center surrounded by supporters of the coalition, including a number of workers employed by Uber and Lyft who oppose the companies’ efforts to take away the rights of low-wage drivers and delivery workers.

“We are not just here to affirm the essential nature and import of your labor. We’re here because we give a damn about your lives,” said Pressley to the audience that filled the Zumix community center on Sumner Street on a rainy Saturday morning. “This is not charity. We’re not asking for [Big Tech companies’] benevolence. This is what these workers and their families are owed — reciprocity for advances only made possible because of their labor. We will not allow [labor rights] to be rolled back by enormous corporations whose loyalty is not to workers but to their bottom line. We affirm that people matter more than profits. We reject the idea that Big Tech is exempt from the requirement and responsibility to pay workers a living wage, provide paid leave, or to enforce anti-discrimination laws.”

Senator and City Councilor Lydia Edwards speaks at an event in East Boston with the Massachusetts is not for sale coalition

The ballot initiative proposed by the Big Tech companies like Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and DoorDash seeks to make the companies immune from key consumer and worker protections, such as minimum wage requirements, overtime pay requirements, anti-discrimination protections, unemployment, and workers’ compensation provisions that currently apply to all other employees in Massachusetts. A similar measure that Big Tech spent $200 million to pass in California has been ruled unconstitutional.

“This state and our recovery are headed in one direction, and Big Tech wants to take us backwards,” said Senator and City Councilor Lydia Edwards. “The fact is, being an employee is a matter of rights. We are a target because we have some of the best workers’ rights in the country. They’re coming here to target us and they feel like if they can beat us here, they can beat us anywhere. We’re not going to let that happen.”

“I’m here because this ballot question represents an existential threat to all workers here in Massachusetts – our home,” said Karen Maxwell, Assistant Secretary of Carmen’s Union ATU Local 589. “Every day that these Big Tech companies continue to break the law means even more vehicles on the road are being turned into mobile sweatshops. The bottom line is these companies wield a tremendous amount of control — much more than they admit to – over the schedules, driving habits, compensation, pay incentives, and working conditions of their employees, even if those employees may not realize what they are fully entitled to under the law – they don’t know.”

“When we drive for these Big Tech companies, we all see them take a huge chunk of our earnings for themselves. These corporations make billions of dollars while we make pennies and dimes, and they deactivate us at will. It’s hard to believe they don’t have the ability to pay us what we deserve,” said Beth Griffith, Executive Director of Independent Drivers Guild. “We should not be forced by Uber and Lyft to choose between flexibility to do our jobs and a living wage and benefits that every worker is entitled to.”

“Big Tech is presenting drivers with false hope with their misleading ballot question,” said Mimi Ramos, Executive Director of NEU4J. “There is no reason, whatsoever, that drivers should have to pick between setting their hours and receiving fair wages, benefits, and basic rights that every other employee in Massachusetts is entitled to under the law.”

“Big Tech might have incredible financial resources — but the truth is priceless, and the truth is on the side of this coalition,” said Wes McEnany, Director of Massachusetts is not for sale.