Bay Area Council Responds to Near Suspension of Lyft, Uber in California

San Francisco — The Bay Area Council issued the statement below today (Aug. 20) following the potential suspension of Lyft and Uber’s operations across California, which was narrowly avoided this afternoon when the ride-hailing companies were granted a temporary stay by an appeals court. This is part of an ongoing lawsuit against the ride-hailing companies to reclassify their drivers as employees under AB5.

“The reckless, all-out assault on California’s innovation economy is leaving companies like Lyft and Uber with little choice but to look elsewhere to do business and it will have dire consequences for millions of workers and consumers, and ultimately the state,” said Jim Wunderman, President and CEO of the Bay Area Council. “It’s one more signal to the world that California is shutting the door to jobs, to economic growth and to new models for doing business. The direct victims of this assault are the many workers who embrace the flexibility and freedom that companies like Lyft and Uber provide and the millions of commuters and others who will have yet another transportation alternative wrenched away from them at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has badly hobbled our mass transit systems. There’s still time for California to reverse course from this disastrous attack on companies like Lyft and Uber, but we will soon reach a point of no return that will undo decades of work to establish California as a welcome laboratory for new technologies.”