California committee advances bill allowing rideshare drivers to organize and bargain collectively

Assemblymember Mia Bonta and Assemblymember David Chiu presented AB 1340 to the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement, asking senators to allow rideshare drivers — also described in the bill as transportation network company drivers — the choice to organize and designate representatives for collective bargaining with companies such as Uber and Lyft.

The bill’s authors said AB 1340 aims to give hundreds of thousands of drivers the right to self‑organize and to create a formal mechanism to resolve disputes and improve working conditions. “All work has dignity,” Assemblymember Wicks said in her opening remarks, adding the bill’s purpose “is to provide transportation network drivers the opportunity, the choice to self organize and designate representatives of their own choosing in order to bargain collectively with transportation network companies.” Assemblymember Berman told the committee the bill…