Unsurprisingly, California’s legislative Democrats ignored the advice and pleas from Republicans, entrepreneurs and those with side gigs that pushing independent contractors and freelancers out of the state would have major negative consequences for all California residents.
People whose livelihoods were threatened attended numerous committee hearings and press conferences and made multiple office visits to legislators, but in the end, it became plain – California Democrats just didn’t care.
They didn’t care because their largest political supporters – powerful union leaders – wanted the law changed. Labor unions are the Democrats’ biggest supplier of precinct walkers and campaign dollars, so Democrats were more than willing to trade tens of thousands of independent contractor jobs from deserving hard working people for extra labor union positions.
How do we know AB 5 is all about unions?
Well, first, the bill’s author is a former leader of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States, and she has gained great political power shilling for it. Second, during the public hearing process for AB 5, exemptions were granted only by the AFL-CIO. She let the AFL-CIO draft the exemption form, review the answers and be the sole decider as to who got exemptions and who didn’t.
AB 5’s passage in the Legislature and approval by Governor Gavin Newsom means that with few exceptions businesses may allow only people classified as employees to work for them – not freelancers or independent contractors. It doesn’t matter if a person wants to work from home, set their own hours, or work for more than one company. Sorry, with few exceptions, that’s simply not allowed here in California anymore. The law affects businesses of all sizes, including out-of-state ones that use contractors based in California.
Example: Because of AB 5, the popular sports website SB Nation eliminated the jobs of 200 independent contractors in California. The organization has said it would replace those 200 people with 20 new part- and full-time employees. One hundred and eighty jobs, gone; 180 Californians who lost work they enjoyed doing and income they needed.
AB 5 jeopardizes the livelihoods of freelance journalists, truck drivers, musicians, yoga instructors, interpreters, translators, franchise owners, photojournalists and hundreds of other professions.
The San Francisco Chronicle recently wrote about AB 5 that some:
“…fear that small companies with limited resources could be driven out of business, removing a vital source of entertainment and training. …
For California Democrats a few more dues-paying union jobs at the expense of tens of thousands of contractor jobs is well worth the trade-off. After all, it is an election year.
Corrin Rankin is President of Legacy Republican Alliance. She can be reached at Corrin@legacyrepublicans.org.
