by Bob Walsh
The formerly great state of California used to be a functional, middle of the road state with a solid economy and a political ruling class that did not have their heads up their asses. No longer. CA is now ruled by progressivism, liberalism, Democrap-Socialism and political correctness and a political ruling class that kisses the asses of power brokers.
AB5 is about to become law in California. The governor has already announced he will sign it when it lands on his desk. It will very likely kill off the gig economy in CA, which right now is what is keeping a lot of people afloat.
Essentially what AB5 does is to redefine what an "employee" is as opposed to a "private contractor." Essentially this is a move to declare Uber and Lyft drivers and similar workers as employees rather than contractors. This will possibly force them to become union members and thereby enrich unions, who can then pass the money on to compliant politicians.
If this does come to pass it would mean a lot fewer drivers and a lot more company control over drivers, such as where they operate and when they operate. Also drivers would almost certainly not be able to work for more than one employment platform. Costs to users would go up. Wait times would go up. Some marginal areas would lose service completely. (Yes, I know these guys really could use better pay and some benefits. Even the employers acknowledge that.)
Assuming it passes into law, which is almost certain, it would, in theory, kick in on 01-01-2020.
There are still things going on in this arena. One of them is the possibility of allowing drivers to unionize but leaving them as contractors and not employees. Clearly there are some potential problems with that. In addition the employers are funding a ballot initiative, so far to the tune of $90 million, that would possibly negate and would certainly tweak the new legislation.
Does CA want you to be broke and unemployed? Not really, then you could not pay taxes to the rapacious politicians. But THEY want to control as much of YOUR LIFE as possible. Welcome to California.
2 comments:
I always ask the Uber what it costs to drive off the Uber. I usually save between $3 and $5.
As “progressive” as California voters are these days, I think the ballot measure has a good chance at success. All this proposed law will do is benefit union bosses while killing jobs.
It would also dramatically increase the cost of an uber or lift. The good liberals will vote with their pocketbooks on this one and allow the gig to continue without forcing these folks to be employees.
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