New York Coalition for Independent Work

• In December 2020, TechNet And Internet Association (whose membership included Amazon) announced they were working with the New York Coalition for Independent Work.
  • The Coalition claimed to work on behalf of app-based contractors to defend their right to flexibility while also working to provide them with benefits. The Coalition ran Letters to the Editors and Op-eds in local newspapers supposedly written by ride-sharing workers defending the flexibility of gig-based jobs and downplaying the poor pay.
  • The Coalition pushed New York to adopt a California Proposition 22 style policy that defined sharing economy workers like Uber and Lyft drivers as contractors instead of employees. Proposition 22 was a massive win for sharing economy companies.  As contractors, sharing economy workers did not have rights to minimum wage or other key legal protections that come with being classified as an employee. Proposition 22 provided contractors with the right to access healthcare through independent entities that their employers only partially funded. Proposition 22 benefited Amazon Flex.