Press Releases
Teamsters Applaud Somerville City Council Vote to Stop Misclassification of Workers
Council Calls On ‘Gig” Companies to Meet Industry Standards
(SOMERVILLE, Mass.) — Teamsters Local 25 praised the Somerville City Council today for its unanimous vote to pass a resolution aimed at stopping Uber, Lyft, Doordash, and other so-called ‘gig’ companies from abusing drivers by misclassifying them as independent contractors. The full City Council voted in favor of a resolution calling on the Massachusetts Legislature to pass the Act, “Establishing Protections and Accountability for Transportation Network Company (TNC) and Delivery Network Company (DNC) Workers.” The resolution was co-sponsored by City Council President Ben Ewen-Campen of Ward 3 and Ward 4 Councilor Jesse Clingan and was passed by a vote of 11-0.
The Teamsters previously endorsed legislation (S.627/H.1158) authored by State Senator Lydia Edwards (D-Third Suffolk) and State Representative Andy Vargas (D-Third Essex) that would protect union members from having their compensation and benefits undercut by bad employers by extending collective bargaining rights to workers at app-based companies while simultaneously strengthening state and federal statutes that protect employees from being misclassified as independent contractors.
“Thank you to the Somerville City Council for standing up and fighting back against the abuse of the workers and taxpayers of Massachusetts,” said Tom Mari, President of Teamsters Local 25. “Big Tech and billion-dollar companies like Uber and Lyft are denying their workforce fair wages, benefits, and job protections and externalizing their labor costs onto the public while reaping enormous profits. They must be held accountable like every other company.”
In its resolution, the Somerville City Council makes clear that TNC and DNC companies are currently misclassifying drivers as independent contractors and pointed to the lawsuit filed against these companies by the Massachusetts Attorney General for wage theft and misclassification because the drivers are employees. The resolution also notes that Uber, Lyft, Doordash and others are using misclassification to avoid contributing to social programs such as unemployment workers’ compensation and the paid family medical leave funded by all other employers. It also highlighted a recent financial assessment of TNCs which found that during a period of ten years, hundreds-of-millions of dollars were owed to Massachusetts benefit programs.
In 2023 alone, Uber and Lyft earned $1.4 Billion but contributed nothing to Massachusetts benefit programs, owing the Commonwealth $47 Million.
Founded in 1903, Teamsters Local 25 represents over 12,500 workers in a wide variety of industries throughout the Greater Boston area. For more information, go to teamsterslocal25.com.