Californian voters have largely reversed an assault on “gig” workers in that state by passing Proposition 22.
Prop 22 is a response to Assembly Bill 5, enacted in California in 2019. The idea was to reclassify many freelancers so that companies could no longer treat them as independent contractors. Instead, to keep giving them work, companies would have to convert erstwhile freelancers to regular employees.
Doing so would mean paying additional costs. Instead, many companies simply stopped working with California-based freelancers. Freelancers of all ideological stripes protested the new law.
Rideshare firms Uber and Lyft were a major target of the legislation. Cabbies who work with them are contractors, not employees. Because of AB5, Uber and Lyft have been on the verge of leaving California — meaning a “victory” only for unions and others who hate market competition.
Now these firms, and many freelancers, can apparently keep operating in the state.
Mission accomplished?
Not so fast. A national version of AB5 sits in Congress, lying in wait. It has been endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 215 Democratic co-sponsors, and Joe Biden, who may or may not be the next president of these not-so-United States. (Recounts are being conducted and allegations of election fraud are being investigated.)
If we end up with a President Biden, he may well push for a national version of AB5. Especially if the Democrats get at least 50 U.S. Senators after runoffs in Georgia are decided.
Stay vigilant. Protect our right to work.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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2 replies on “The Price of Freelancing Is Eternal Vigilance”
Would such a law on the federal level be constitutional? Uber and Lyft, for example, may operate in many states but I’m not sure what they do comes under the heading of interstate commerce. Where is Congress’s authority to regulate them?
Socialism, as originally defined, is worker ownership of the means of production. Which sums up driving for Uber or Lyft nicely. The drivers own their time, and their cars. They choose their own hours and their own work locations. They just use Uber and Lyft as customer procurers and payment processors.
But for some reason, instead of celebrating Prop 22 as a victory for socialism and for the workers, supposed “socialists” want to drive these heroic exemplars of the proletariat back onto the medallion cab plantation.