A Labor Movement for the Platform Economy

Ownership, via employee stock option plans, has been a powerful tool for incentivizing talented people to dedicate their skills to building startups in Silicon Valley. While this model has been extremely successful, it hasn’t been accessible to all, constrained by geography and legacy financial infrastructure, among other factors. One result is tha... See more

I think it’s particularly important for us to figure out this third-way because I believe many more jobs will fit its mold in the future. The ability for algorithmically managed work to lower transaction costs and enable networks of loosely connected gig workers to coordinate on complex tasks is too powerful to be a passing fad.

But as we’ve seen, monetization is only one dimension to the platform legitimacy crisis. It’s not just about money: it’s about agency and autonomy, and having the opportunity to participate in decisions that directly impact your livelihood. It’s about breaking the unilateral power that platforms hold as centralized points of control in the ecosyste... See more

As early as 2017, executives at the ride-sharing platform Uber reportedly met with US Securities and Exchange Commission officials about granting company stock to their independent-contractor drivers.

By February 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that, with their initial public offerings approaching, Uber and its competitor Lyft found a way to ... See more