• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close

Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

CONGRESSWOMAN AYANNA PRESSLEY SUPPORTS FIGHT AGAINST BIG TECH’S PROPOSED LOOPHOLE LAW

Written by SHIRA LAUCHAROEN Posted March 14, 2022 Filed Under: News, News to Us, NEWS+OPINIONS

Pressley endorsed the growing “Massachusetts is not for sale” coalition


Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley announced her support for “the growing coalition of consumer, civil rights, and labor advocates opposing a Big Tech sponsored ballot initiative aiming to rewrite key worker and consumer protection laws in Massachusetts,” according to a media release, on March 12. A ballot initiative proposed by companies such as Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and DoorDash would render the companies immune from key consumer and worker protections, “such as minimum wage requirements, overtime pay requirements, anti-discrimination protections, unemployment, and workers’ compensation provisions that currently apply to all other employees in Massachusetts.” Pressley spoke out at an event in an East Boston community center:

“We are not just here to affirm the essential nature and import of your labor. We’re here because we give a damn about your lives,” said Pressley to the audience. “This is not charity. We’re not asking for [Big Tech companies’] benevolence. This is what these workers and their families are owed — reciprocity for advances only made possible because of their labor. We will not allow [labor rights] to be rolled back by enormous corporations whose loyalty is not to workers but to their bottom line. We affirm that people matter more than profits. We reject the idea that Big Tech is exempt from the requirement and responsibility to pay workers a living wage, provide paid leave, or to enforce anti-discrimination laws.”

“This state and our recovery are headed in one direction, and Big Tech wants to take us backwards,” said senator and councilor Lydia Edwards. “The fact is, being an employee is a matter of rights. We are a target because we have some of the best workers’ rights in the country. They’re coming here to target us and they feel like if they can beat us here, they can beat us anywhere. We’re not going to let that happen.”

“I’m here because this ballot question represents an existential threat to all workers here in Massachusetts – our home,” said Karen Maxwell, assistant secretary of Carmen’s Union ATU Local 589. “Every day that these Big Tech companies continue to break the law means even more vehicles on the road are being turned into mobile sweatshops. The bottom line is these companies wield a tremendous amount of control — much more than they admit to – over the schedules, driving habits, compensation, pay incentives, and working conditions of their employees, even if those employees may not realize what they are fully entitled to under the law – they don’t know.”

SHIRA LAUCHAROEN
+ posts

Shira Laucharoen is a reporter based in Boston. She currently serves as the assistant director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. In the past she has written for Sampan newspaper, The Somerville Times, Scout Magazine, Boston Magazine, and WBUR.

    This author does not have any more posts.

Filed Under: News, News to Us, NEWS+OPINIONS Tagged With: Ayanna Pressley, big tech, Politics, worker

WHAT’S NEW

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Justice Department Completes Vetting Of Rachael Rollins

Justice Department Completes Vetting Of Rachael Rollins

AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”

AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”

Primary Sidebar

LOCAL EVENTS

AAN Wire


Most Popular

  • AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”
  • Over Yondr: Are Cell Phone Pouches At Shows Liberating, Dangerous, Or Annoying?
  • Deep Cuts Brings Sandwiches, Craft Beer, And Live Music To Medford
  • Family Of Woman Killed By Commuter Rail Sues MBTA For Crash Records
  • Daring Greatly: TikTok Star Alden McWayne (aka Gucci Pineapple) On Scheming And Dreaming

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com