Posts tagged Uber
Rep. Kevin Kiley Fights for Freelancers Against Julie Su Nom in First Workforce Protection Subcomittee Hearing
April 21, 2023 // Through the PRO Act, DOL rulemaking, and installing those who will do their bidding atop federal government agencies, the establishment Democratic Party, in lockstep with the Big Labor lobby hopes to force tens of millions of Americans out of freelancing and independent contracting and into “employee” status, which would allow the unions to focus on organizing new sectors in the face of dwindling membership. Rep. Kiley has fought against these efforts every step of the way, first in the California State Assembly and now in Congress, and called the hearing to highlight just how destructive the Biden/Su agenda will be to all Americans, and not just Californians, and has called Su “the architect and lead enforcer of AB-5.”
Michigan: Wage theft package gets first committee hearing
April 14, 2023 // Under HB 4390, an independent contractor is someone who is: a) “free from control and direction of the payer,” b) “performs work that is outside the usual course of the payer’s business,” and c) “is customarily engaged in an independently established trade.” Wendy Block, Senior VP of Business Advocacy and Member Engagement for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, compared the Michigan proposal to California’s independent contractor law. HB 4401 and HB 4406 would make it a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and or a $10,000 fine to refuse to provide that information more than once.
Opinion: It Turns Out Anti-Gig Economy Law AB 5 Was Tarnished by ‘Backroom Dealing’
March 30, 2023 // The court cited Gonzalez’s own damning tweets, interviews, statements and a Washington Post op-ed, even suggesting that AB 5 is rooted in “corruption, pure spite, and naked favoritism.” Indeed, the judges’ line of questioning at the July 13, 2022, hearing signaled their dismay at Gonzalez’s “shocking statements,” noting that Uber was the focus of her attention. The plaintiffs’ complaint included a list of disparaging remarks by Gonzalez, such as calling Uber’s chief legal counsel “full of shit” on Sept. 18, 2019 — the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 5 into law.
California: Court ruling opens door to gig driver unionization bill, union says
March 28, 2023 // Last Monday, a California appeals court ruled that Proposition 22 — a 2020 ballot measure that allowed Uber, Lyft, and other platforms to classify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees — was largely constitutional, reversing much of a lower court ruling. But the court found that one part of the proposition wasn’t valid. It’s a part that defined legislation on certain subjects, including unionization for app-based drivers, as amendments to the proposition. And amendments, the proposition declares, need to pass by a seven-eights majority vote of the Legislature. That super, super, super-duper majority is a steep climb.
A Win For California’s App-Based Drivers
March 17, 2023 // In an ironic twist, California Attorney General Rob Bonta argued in favor of Prop. 22 to the Court of Appeals even though he voted for AB5 when he was an assemblyman in the California state legislature and was personally opposed to Prop. 22. The state correctly asserted that the will of the voters should prevail, and the Court of Appeals agreed. Former assemblywoman and author of AB5 cried foul about Monday’s ruling, claiming the “system is broken” and that the appeals court “chose to stand with powerful corporations over working people, allowing companies to buy their way out of our state’s labor laws.” Gonzalez, who now heads the California Labor Federation representing 1,200 unions in the state, has no such concerns about the millions of independent contractors and small businesses adversely affected by her disastrous law. From transcribers and translators to sign-language interpreters, videographers, wedding planners, regional theaters, pharmacists, the independent film industry, and more, AB5 has wielded a wrecking ball to the independent workforce in California, particularly impacting female entrepreneurs who have been disproportionately harmed by the law.
California Court Rebukes War on Workers
March 16, 2023 // This obviously poses an existential threat to emerging app-based companies that rely on a contractor model, but it also posed an entirely predictable threat to many traditional professions where workers eschew the 9–5 cubicle or factory floor work model. When the Legislature codified Dynamex via Assembly Bill 5, which went into effect in January 2020, it exempted many industries — primarily those with the most influential lobbies. Nevertheless, economic destruction ensued. Companies eliminated jobs rather than hire people as salaried employees. Publications — including Vox, which ran a piece championing AB 5 — laid off its California stringers. Musical groups that relied on gig workers had to shutter their operations. All types of freelance workers — from photographers to sign-language interpreters to rabbis — suddenly found themselves in a pickle. The same Gov. Gavin Newsom who used his vast executive powers to suspend laws during the COVID pandemic refused to suspend AB 5, even as people who were forced to stay at home lost their stay-at-home freelance opportunities. Some Californians embraced the workaround of starting an LLC, but that imposed new costs on workers who already were struggling. Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court of Los Angeles
California: Uber, Lyft Can Treat Drivers as Contractors, Court Rules (1)
March 15, 2023 // “We agree that Proposition 22 does not intrude on the Legislature’s workers’ compensation authority or violate the single-subject rule, but we conclude that the initiative’s definition of what constitutes an amendment violates separation of powers principles,” the three-judge panel held. The court found the initiative violates the separation of powers principles by limiting lawmakers’ ability to enact amendments such as allowing gig workers to unionize. It severed that portion of the initiative and will “allow the rest of Proposition 22 to remain in effect, as the voters indicated they wished,” in a split victory for gig companies. The Protect App-Based Drivers and Services coalition that backed the initiative called the ruling “a historic victory for the nearly 1.4 million drivers who rely on the independence and flexibility of app-based work to earn income, and for the integrity of California’s initiative system.”
You may have heard of the ‘union boom.’ The numbers tell a different story
March 2, 2023 // Headline writers began declaring things like, "Employees everywhere are organizing" and that the United States was seeing a "union boom." In September, the White House asserted "Organized labor appears to be having a moment." However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its union data for 2022. And their data shows that — far from a resurgence — the share of American workers in a union has continued to decline. Last year, the union membership rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 10.1% — the lowest on record. This was the second year in a row that the union rate fell. Only one in ten American workers is now in a union, down from nearly one in three workers during the heyday of unions back in the 1950s.