Who wins with rising gig prices? + New challenge to Newsom powers + Meet our newest intern

Good morning, and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

STATE OF THE GIG ECONOMY

Via Jeong Park...

Some California rideshare and delivery drivers are saying their livelihood hasn’t gotten much better, despite rising prices for those services as well as Proposition 22 that promised more benefits.

The drivers, along with Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, spoke Tuesday morning at a “State of the Gig Economy” event organized by worker groups We Drive Progress and Mobile Workers Alliance.

“Drivers are not seeing the promises Prop. 22 has promised us,” said Jerome Gage, a Los Angeles-based rideshare driver and an organizer at Mobile Workers Alliance.

Rideshare prices have skyrocketed in California amid increasing demands. But Gage and other drivers said they are not getting their cut of the fare hike.

They also pointed to a survey that found only 15% of the state’s rideshare and delivery drivers applied for a health insurance stipend provided under Prop. 22. The drivers also said they lost features such as the ability to set prices.

Carrillo called for the federal government to step in, by classifying those drivers as employees under the National Labor Relations Act and passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act giving those workers the right to organize.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi defended the company’s pay practice, tweeting Friday that the pay for California drivers went up 2.6 times from January to May. In a statement, spokesman for a coalition of gig companies and community organizations supporting Prop. 22 said the initiative has led thousands to get the health care stipend.

“The reality is that 80% of drivers work fewer than 20 hours per week and the majority work less than 10 hours per week. Most of these drivers have other jobs that provide benefits like health care,” said Geoff Vetter, spokesman for the Protect App-Based Drivers & Services Coalition.

LOOK OUT FOR THAT GAUCHO

Please join us in welcoming Katherine Swartz to The Bee Capitol Bureau. She’ll be working as a reporting intern this summer.

She is a senior at UC Santa Barbara, where she is majoring in global studies and film and media studies. She’s the editor-in-chief of the Daily Nexus student newspaper.

Swartz grew up in the Central Valley, and is based in Ripon this summer.

Swartz previously interned for the Santa Barbara Independent and served as a yearlong fellow in the CalMatters College Journalism Network, where she reported on campus police at California’s public colleges.

In her free time, Swartz films and edits documentaries. She recently wrapped up a project on offshore oil drilling off the California coast.

GOP LAWMAKERS CHALLENGE NEWSOM IN SUPREME COURT

Via Lara Korte...

The saga continues — Republican Assemblymen James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, and Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, filed a petition with the California Supreme Court on Tuesday in hopes that the high court will agree that Gov. Gavin Newsom overstepped his power when issuing executive orders last year.

A quick refresher: As the pandemic bore down on California, Newsom, under the Emergency Services Act, issued a slew of executive orders. One of them, which many of his opponents take issue with, changed the state elections code to ensure all registered voters would receive a mail ballot in light of the pandemic.

Gallagher and Kiley say the constitution only allows for the governor to suspend certain laws under an emergency, not create them, which they say is something only the Legislature can do.

The lawmakers first challenged the governor’s power in Sutter County Superior Court, where the judge agreed. Last month, however, a 3rd District Court of Appeals overturned that ruling (and gave Kiley and Gallagher a dressing-down in the process).

Now it’s up to the state’s highest court to issue the final say.

“The issue now squarely presented for the high court is whether the separation of powers still exists in California,” Gallagher and Kiley said in a joint statement last month. “We are confident it will uphold this bedrock principle of constitutional government.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Good morning California. It’s reopening day. We’ve administered over 40 million vaccines. Now… No more social distancing. No more capacity limits. No more colors or county tiers. And if you’re vaccinated — no more masks. It’s a good day.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• Entry-level state attorneys will get a 15% pay bump in a new, one-year contract agreement their union reached with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration, according to a summary of the agreement emailed to members, via Wes Venteicher.

• The pandemic has led many Californians, by force or choice, to hit a reset button in their career, via Jeong Park.

• California is open. Like, for real this time, via Michael McGough.