I resolved to never again let Uber driving threaten my livelihood in exchange for money the day gunshots rang out feet from my car as I approached a pickup location. Behind cover, I fired up my Uber Driver app to cancel the trip, but the app warned me that if I did my trip cancellation rating would approach the deactivation threshold. In other words, I could lose my job if I didn’t risk my life for the company right now. Adrenaline coursing through me, I made the foolish decision to go through with the trip. I came out of it unscathed, but sadly the same can’t be said for the shooting victim that day.

Now my self-preservation alarm bells are ringing again, as corporate politicians from both parties in the Democrat-controlled Washington State Legislature are pushing through a backroom deal they have made with Uber and Lyft, House Bill 2076. The bill legalizes the misclassification of gig workers as “independent contractors,” relegating me and countless others to the status of second-class workers, consigning us to constant economic precarity. HB 2076 also bars local governments and voters from regulating the companies — a tactic known as “preemption” which entrenches this attack on workers’ rights by undermining local democracy.

Unfortunately the leadership of my union, Drivers Union, an affiliate of Teamsters Local 117, is fully backing this bill as a necessary compromise, even though it would weaken important victories that our union organized to win in Seattle, like our minimum wage standard. More troubling, the bill is already inspiring copycat legislation elsewhere, in many cases with the backing of unions.