James Jordan could work at almost any job in California and be protected by state rules that require companies to give their employees high-quality masks to block wildfire smoke.
But James Jordan is an Uber driver.
That means he’s a contractor, not an employee, for the multibillion-dollar tech giant — and unprotected by California’s first-in-the-nation regulations on worker safety related to wildfire smoke.
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Ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are now part of America’s disaster response. Both apps have offered Los Angeles residents free rides to evacuation shelters during the deadly wildfires that have torched large area of the city — a service they also offered ahead of hurricanes and other disasters around the country.
