Posts tagged Gavin Newsom
OPINION: Biden’s war on working women
February 5, 2024 // But given the administration’s bent toward categorizing workers as employees (in an effort to ramp up unionization), the prospects of retaining their independent status look bleak for the nation’s 70+ million independent workers. Over half of freelancers are women. They earn full-time, part-time, or occasional incomes through various occupations that include—but are not limited to—the gig economy. Think about virtual assistants, marketing professionals, transcriptionists, makeup artists, entertainers, and medical assistants. SEE ALSO Goodbye, wage gap. Hello, partner gap. As true take-home-pay equality looms, psychologists warn it could interfere with women’s evolutionary drive to seek out a partner who provides. Women ultimately may pay the price for finally earning as much as men They depend on flexibility to work around their priorities, such as raising families, caring for aging parents and sick spouses, or managing their own illnesses and disabilities.
Biden Takes a Destructive California Idea National
February 4, 2024 // The Biden administration appears undeterred by the lessons of recent history. The California law unleashed chaos in the state’s politics and courts. Politicians delegated to union leaders the power to hand out exemptions to politically favored groups. Lawyers, doctors, psychologists, dentists, podiatrists — almost anybody with an advanced degree was exempt. When newspapers editorialized against the new law — noting that they rely on freelance photographers, reporters, editors, designers, and delivery people — they, too, were excluded from the new regulations. Suddenly free from the dead hand of state regulators, the newspapers turned as one and editorialized in favor of the new law. A federal judge said the process was shot through with “corruption,” “backroom dealing,” “pure spite,” and “naked favoritism.” But more important, A.B. 5 crushed tens of thousands of California business owners — those who operate as independent contractors as well as those who employ or otherwise rely on them. Now Biden and Su plan to bring the crazy to every American state.
California dockworkers have a new target in their fight against automation
February 2, 2024 // Although automated port technology has existed for decades and is already employed at three terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the vast majority of dock operations are still conducted using human-operated equipment. Union workers and the shipping industry say that could change if the ports are forced to adopt electric equipment. “This rule, aimed at meeting environmental standards, has raised worries about the potential increase in automation at the ports,” said Gary Herrera, president of ILWU Local 13, in a statement. “While it is important to prioritize environmental sustainability, it is equally important to consider the impact of these measures on the local workforce and community as it pertains to jobs in the community and region.”
‘Independent Contractor’ Rule Latest Dumpster Fire Exported From California
January 31, 2024 // One of those infamous policies and the havoc it’s bound to wreak has gone national, thanks to labor department rules issued by the Biden administration. A 339-page Department of Labor rule – you can always count on the federal government to keep it pithy – would make it much harder to be an independent contractor or freelance worker in America. Created to replace a simpler Trump-era rule, it’s modeled on AB5, a disastrous 2019 California law that made independent contracting and freelance work so hard to do that it effectively outlawed it in the Golden State.
Opinion: Biden’s Labor Nominee ‘Embodies the Spirit of California,’ and That’s the Problem
January 18, 2024 // If approved, Su won’t be the only half-baked Californian in the Biden White House. Vice President Kamala Harris is (per National Review’s Charlie Cooke) “talented enough to make the inanities uttered by her rival Pete Buttigieg sound substantive, concise, and apprehensible.” Economist David Bahnsen calls California’s Janet Yellen “a career bureaucrat, albeit a hyper-intelligent one, who has spent an adult life devoid of accountability for poor decisions and even poorer ideas.” California’s Xavier Becerra knew nothing about health or human services until Biden made him head of Health and Human Services; during Covid, he did nothing, which, given his résumé, might have been for the best. Becerra’s fathomless ignorance is almost a prerequisite for this administration, where experience might mean owning your failures. The first White House gig of Californian Alejandro Mayorkas, now secretary of homeland security, as Obama’s director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services involved running interference for a scandal-plagued electric-car company run by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham and Terry McAuliffe, cochairman of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign, chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005, and chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. I needn’t go on — or should I mention that Biden’s deputy secretary of education is a former San Diego teachers’-union official whose concern for union power exceeds any attachment to student performance? While she was Governor Gavin Newsom’s secretary of labor, Su oversaw the implementation of bad policy and the mismanagement of simple procedures. Any one of her major catastrophes would have been career-enders elsewhere; in California, where the failure of progressive policy is invariably a prompt for more progressive policy, she was instead excused — and then promoted into the Biden
Op-ed: KAREN ANDERSON: Joe Biden And Gavin Newsom Go To War With Freelancers For Their Big Labor Buddies
January 15, 2024 // or those who file Schedule C on their federal tax returns, deducting expenses is crucial, especially if expensive equipment is required in a particular field such as independent filmmaking. Prior to AB5, film producer Dan Cheatham could write off his office costs, vehicle usage, fuel, software, hardware, equipment, healthcare, and self-advertising. “AB5 is poison for the self-employed in California unless we are willing to just volunteer our services and turn this into art for art’s sake,” he said. Finally, the opportunity to hone one’s craft is inherent in the freedom to freelance. Whether it’s a videographer working with different clients in different settings, a writer growing their skill sets to include photography and web design, or a wedding vendor expanding her offerings, the chance to try on different hats is one of many essential attributes of being self-employed.
Opinion: California’s minimum wage woes are a cautionary tale for the nation
January 10, 2024 // California politicians seem to have a penchant for doing whatever they can to reduce housing affordability and otherwise increase the cost of living in the state — high taxes, burdensome labor and environmental mandates, waste for boondoggles like the high-speed rail project and countless other laws and regulations. Then they attempt to be saviors by passing still more laws to benefit one group or another and alleviate the situation they have largely created.
How McDonald’s, Chipotle, Starbucks are preparing for the fast-food worker battles to come in 2024
January 4, 2024 // “Anyone looking at this in the industry, now that emotion has been removed from the negotiation, sees this as the least bad option or worst good option, depending on which side you’re on,” said Matt Haller, president and CEO of the International Franchise Association, a trade group that represents franchisors, franchisees and franchise suppliers. In exchange for concessions, and staring down a very uncertain outcome on the referendum, “We have this very predictable business environment for our members moving forward,” he said.
Pizza Hut franchisees lay off more than 1,200 delivery drivers in California as restaurants brace for $20 fast-food wages
December 26, 2023 // Mark Kalinowski, a restaurant-industry analyst, wrote in a note this week that he expected "more harm to come" in various ways as fast-food chains "take action in an attempt to blunt the impact of higher labor costs." Chains such as Chipotle and McDonald's said they planned to pass the costs of higher wages in California to customers by raising menu prices. In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed the FAST Act into law. It called for the minimum wage for fast-food workers to increase to $22 an hour in 2023. But corporate chains such as McDonald's, Chipotle, and Chick-fil-A, as well as franchise advocacy groups, fought the law. A coalition of restaurant-industry organizations said the law could raise costs for fast-food restaurants by $3 billion. They rallied to get a referendum on the ballot.
Labor unions are still giving Democrats climate headaches
December 6, 2023 // The United Steelworkers, whose members operate oil refineries around the state, has endorsed a 12-year transition roadmap developed by economists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which proposes California spend $470 million annually to support workers laid off from fossil fuel jobs. In October, USW joined a new labor coalition, including chapters from United Auto Workers, Service Employees International Union and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, that released policy priorities including wage replacement, healthcare coverage, retraining and relocation support for displaced workers.