Josh Gold, Uber's senior director of policy and communications, replied by suggesting it would not make sense for any company to combine full employee status and benefits with the ability for drivers to decide when, where and how long they work.
DoorDash New England Government Relations Lead Christina Kennedy said reclassifying drivers as employees would lead to a"detrimental" loss of flexibility for those on the company's platform, which it refers to as"Dashers." Feeney, a former organized labor leader, replied that"if the drivers want it, then their employers should want to maintain it, regardless of a ballot initiative."
In July 2020, Healey sued Uber and Lyft, alleging that the popular platforms were violating Massachusetts labor laws by treating their nearly 200,000 drivers like independent contractors rather than employees. Eight months after Healey filed her suit, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart joined with other business and community groups to launch a campaign pressing for changes to state law that would keep drivers classified as contractors and make some new benefits available.
The Legislature on past occasions has intervened to broker a deal between competing initiative petition campaigns and avert costly and bruising ballot fights.