Freelancers Angry Over Assemblywoman Gonzalez’ False Claims About Benefits
“The terms of AB 5 are so murky that many companies are choosing to not work with anyone living in California.”
Newsom Budgets Millions to Hunt Down AB-5 Violators
By Michelle Mears, January 14, 2020 6:51 am
“Like the old Soviet Union you will be allowed to work only if government allows it—under their conditions, not yours.” ~Stephen Frank
Part ll of those hurt by AB 5.
Part l is here: Democrat Assemblywoman Gonzalez Says There Is No Data Proving Thousands of Freelancers Are Losing Work Due to AB-5
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) and Governor Gavin Newsom (D) are digging in as freelancers fight back against AB 5. On Friday, Jan. 10 Gonzalez appeared on KUSI in San Diego and made numerous false claims about workers in the gig economy not paying taxes or having benefits. The same day, Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $20-million to target and investigate contractors, not in compliance with the law that took effect New Year’s Day.
California is estimated to have nearly two million residents who choose to work as an independent contractor, according to the 2018 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Economic Release. Two million however is a conservative estimate because the report did not include the number of individuals who supplement their income with online platforms.
Gonzalez has angered not just thousands but possibly millions of voters. Self-proclaimed hard core Democrats have said this is the straw that broke the camels back.
A group of contractors met with Assemblyman David Chui (D) in San Francisco on Monday. Chui told contractor Emily Price and others that a repeal of AB-5 is unlikely but he is keeping a binder of people’s stories on how the bill is affecting them.
Meanwhile, rally’s are being planned up and down the state, freelancers and independent contractors are writing letters, and making phone calls to state representatives. Gonzalez however remains firm AB 5 and says the new law is best for the state.
AB 5 stems from the The Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court decision by the California Supreme Court in April 2018 that overturned three decades of California employment law that allowed individuals to work as independent contractors.
According to Imindependent.com, “This decision could upend how millions of Californians earn a living and nearly every industry due to its new restrictive ABC test. The ABC test is the first time in U.S. history that such a test has been imposed by a court, without legislative approval, with three independently disqualifying factors.“
Newsom who is pro-union like Gonzalez, said he will use part of the $20 million for training staff to allocate the ABC test and to allocate funding to investigate and hold hearings on compliance. A reporter from California Political Review compared Newsom’s tactics to the those of a communist regime.
“Like the old Soviet Union you will be allowed to work only if government allows it—under their conditions, not yours,” wrote Stephen Frank.
The terms of AB 5 are so murky that many companies are choosing to not work with anyone living in California.
This law is extremely harmful to the entire music community and will cause harmful consequences to the people working in this industry as well as for the general population who will be deprived of music because there just won’t ba any way to produce it any more. Venues will close, people will go broke with all the challenges that insures on the health of a human being.
I urge to to reconsider and amend this law to take our specific industry into consideration and leaving it out of this legislation.
Sincerely,
Nathalie
It is pathetic that the musician union that suppose to defend the interest of musician is doing nothing to oppose this law that the only thing it will do is damage the entire music business.
Many musicians woke up on January 1, 2020 without a clue that their way of life was going to be in jeopardy. AB5 is a drastic game changer for people who are used to owning their own lives and livelihoods. This bill is a power grab by big labor and a money grab by an out of control legislature. Don’t whine…get busy and exercise your civic rights! Our government works best when it fears its voters!