Photograph from Nicole Garcia/GBH News: Rideshare and Delivery Drivers held a press conference by the Brewer Fountain at the Boston Common to announce their 2024 ballot campaign
For nearly four years, our team at Issues Management Group (IMG) led communications for the Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work (MCIW), an organization working to ensure that app-based rideshare and delivery drivers could maintain their status as independent contractors while securing new benefits and protections. In both 2022 and 2024 our coalition, and the tens of thousands of rideshare drivers we engaged with, proposed a ballot question that would ask voters to approve this independence and benefits model.
Last month, Uber and Lyft reached a settlement with Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell that secured everything we set out to achieve and then some, ensuring that Massachusetts drivers will maintain the independence that they overwhelmingly prefer. As part of the settlement, the tech companies agreed not to move forward with MCIW’s proposed ballot question, successfully ending an effort that spanned two ballot question cycles but never actually reached Election Day.
The IMG team has been engaged in ballot questions for more than a decade in a variety of roles, working with both proponents and opponents, and on both the winning and losing sides. The MCIW effort was unique in both its longevity (most ballot question efforts last less than two years) and brevity (both the 2022 and 2024 campaigns ended in June). Despite this distinctiveness, several maxims of communication were reinforced that are applicable to our work in other industries, particularly real estate and healthcare.
Effective communication requires constant communication
Reporters are busy. There are fewer of them now than ever before, requiring them to cover more stories on shorter timelines. While we live in our subject matter, and recognize and remember every update, every data point, and every bit of history, reporters do not have the luxury of following every specific twist and turn of every issue.
Throughout the MCIW effort from 2020-2024, we checked in frequently with reporters both on and off the record to ensure they had up-to-date information, were hearing from our campaign, knew about related developments in other cities or states, were briefed on the latest polling or research, and, most importantly, that we had a response for every message being pushed by our opponents. At every opportunity, we were restating our message, bolstering it with data, and shaping the conversation around this topic.
Organized labor often gets a free pass on misinformation
Perhaps the most frustrating and consistent challenge through four years of MCIW work was the free pass that several media outlets gave to messages pushed by organized labor. Several labor-funded studies that delivered labor-friendly talking points defying rational thought received extensive media coverage throughout the campaign, rarely receiving scrutiny on methodology. Other claims made by organized labor were often reported as fact, despite no proof points being offered.
In the most egregious example, at least one major Boston outlet reported verbatim an outlandish claim made by SEIU. On the eve of a major legislative hearing in November 2023, SEIU 32BJ pushed out a press release threatening “Uber and Lyft delays expected in greater Boston on Monday, as hundreds of drivers slated to attend the first hearing for [a] bill that would grant Uber and Lyft drivers union rights.” This ridiculous claim was based on nothing, provably false (a point that we made to the outlet in question, to no avail), and yet was restated by media outlets as fact. In truth, not only were there no delays at all for riders, but drivers OPPOSED to the SEIU legislation outnumbered drivers in support by a 2:1 margin.
Messengers matter
Despite what our opponents tried to claim throughout the campaign, rideshare and delivery drivers overwhelmingly supported our ballot effort and their status as independent contractors. In survey after survey drivers were clear: 75 percent or more wanted to remain independent contractors, and 85 percent supported proposals that would deliver independence and benefits. To drive this message home, at every opportunity we connected drivers directly to reporters, legislators, and others to share their stories and reiterate their desire and reasoning for wanting to remain independent.
When the campaign first began in earnest in early 2021, our key message that drivers wanted to remain independent was often dismissed as just our talking point. Three years later, after hundreds and hundreds of drivers attended our events, testified on Beacon Hill, joined rallies and press conferences, filmed commercials, joined podcasts, and spoke with reporters, community leaders, and elected officials countless times, it became apparent to anyone paying attention that the vast majority of drivers DID in fact prefer independence. At one point, even one of SEIU’s drivers acknowledged at a press conference that “only ‘maybe a quarter’ of the drivers he knows want to become employees.” Our goal throughout the campaign was to elevate the voices of drivers; we are extremely proud of how effectively we accomplished that goal.
A win for drivers
Despite never actually reaching the ballot, our nearly four-year effort on behalf of rideshare and delivery drivers contributed to a major victory.
As part of the settlement with the Attorney General, drivers will keep the independent contractor status they hold so dear, while also securing historic new benefits, including a minimum earnings standard of $32.50 per hour for engaged time (from the time they accept a ride through when they complete it), adjusted over time for inflation; paid sick leave; paid family and medical leave; occupational accident insurance coverage; and a first-in-the-nation portable healthcare fund.
We are immensely proud of our work with MCIW and look forward to applying these reinforced lessons learned to future campaigns and other client work.