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Freelance Musicians, Writers And Others Fume On Facebook, Charge AB 5 Interferes With Their Ability To Work As Independent Contractors; All LB Dem Senators/Assemblymembers Voted For It; AB 5's Author (SD Dem Assemblywoman) May Offer Tweaks

UPDATE: Gov. Newsom asks state lawmakers to allocate $21 mil in FY21 budget for investigations & enforcement


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(Jan. 19, 2020, 6:45 p.m.) -- An increasingly vocal number of freelance writers, musicians and others are speaking out against the impacts of AB 5, a 2019 bill approved on a near-party line vote by Sacramento's Dem majority state legislature and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom that requires classifying them as employees rather than independent contractors. Their Facebook postings and comments charge that AB 5 has cost them jobs, cost them needed income, made it harder for them to find work and in some cases jeopardized their livelihood.

Multiple postings and comments on a Facebook page titled Freelancers Against AB 5 at this link detail in personal terms how AB 5 has impacted them. The comments call for amendments to AB 5 or its repeal, and some urge the defeat of AB 5's author Assembywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher (D, SD) who continues to defend AB 5 as providing "protections" to workers from misclassification by some employers (in ways that prevent coverage of labor and minimum wage laws.)

Recognizing the potential political potency of opposition to AB 5, on January 10 the leftish Daily Kos headlined: "Clumsy Democratic attempts to fix Uber/Lyft problem is deadly to freelancers") at this link, with Kos writing in pertinent part::

The "gig economy," in which people work as independent contractors on various projects, can be both a boon to workers and a problem.

It's a problem when companies such as Lyft and Uber exploit workers, treating them as actual employees while refusing to bear the costs of bringing them on as employees -- a savings of about 30% per worker.

It's a boon when people either engage in those gigs as side hustles —earning a little extra side money during their free time -- or when life circumstances prevent them from having a full-time job with the attendant full-time hours, such as certain medical conditions or disabilities...

So that's the challenge: How do you pass legislation that protects workers from being exploited, while not harming those who want that freedom?

Well, you don't do it the way California did, the way New Jersey almost did, the way most Democratic presidential candidates, such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders (explicit), are arguing, and the way other Democrats, such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, want. In short, Democrats are fucking this up, and threatening to turn a key party demographic (educated creative-class professionals) against them. Not everyone wants or needs to be protected.

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AB 5 has been challenged in federal court by the CA Trucking Association (which argued some drivers opted to operate as independent contractors setting their own schedules and profiting from owning their own vehicle). An initial court ruling has temporarily exempted such independent truckers from AB 5.

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The American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Press Photographers Association have also sued in federal court, alleging that AB 5 unconstitutionally limits the amount of work they can perform on a freelance basis for a single publisher unlike any other job category it lists as "professional services." Uber and Postmates have also filed suit arguing AB 5 denies them equal protection based on what types of jobs it does or doesn't exempt.

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Goovernor Newsom's proposed FY21 state budget asks state lawmakers to allocate $21 million for investigations and enforcement of AB 5 (meaning state Senators and Assembymembers will casts vote on this on or before June 30, 2020.):


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Although freelancers' anger with AB 5 spans the political spectrum, Sacramento lawmakers voted in near party-line lockstep on AB 5: all state Senate Democrats (locally including Lena Gonzalez and Tom Umberg) voted "yes"; all state Senate Republicans voted "no." All Assembly Democrats voted "yes" (locally including Patrick O'Donnell, Mike Gipson and (Speaker) Anthony Rendon) and all Assembly Republicans voted "no" except Assemblyman Tyler Diep (Huntington Beach-Fountain Valley) who joined Democrats in voting "yes" and Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, a Republican from CA's central coast who was "no vote recorded."

Assembly concurrence in Senate amendments: (61-16-2)

Ayes: Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Bauer-Kahan, Berman, Bloom, Boerner Horvath, Bonta, Burke, Calderon, Carrillo, Cervantes, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Daly, Diep (R), Eggman, Frazier, Friedman, Gabriel, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gipson, Gloria, Gonzalez, Grayson, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Kamlager-Dove, Levine, Limón, Low, Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Petrie-Norris, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Salas, Santiago, Smith, Mark Stone, Ting, Weber, Wicks, Wood, Rendon

Noes: Bigelow, Brough, Chen, Choi, Flora, Fong, Gallagher, Gray, Kiley, Lackey, Mathis, Melendez, Obernolte, Patterson, Voepel, Waldron

No vote recorded: Cunningham (R), Mayes (independent)

Senate floor on final passage

Ayes: Allen, Archuleta, Atkins, Beall, Bradford, Caballero, Dodd, Durazo, Galgiani, Glazer, Lena Gonzalez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Hurtado, Jackson, Leyva, McGuire, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Portantino, Roth, Rubio, Skinner, Stern, Umberg, Wieckowski, Wiener

Noes: Bates, Borgeas, Chang, Dahle, Grove, Jones, Moorlach, Morrell, Nielsen, Stone, Wilk

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AB 5 author Assemblywoman Gonzalez-Fletcher (a former labor organzier with degrees from Stanford (BA), Georgetown (MA) and the UCLA School of Law (JD)) has introduced a "placeholder" bill into which she could offer amendments to AB 5 (which she hasn't detailed publicly at this point.) .

Assemblywoman Gonzalez-Fletcher faces two Republican challengers on the March 2020 San Diego ballot: Lincoln Pickard and John Vogel. In 2018, she defeated Pickard roughly 75% to 25%.


Jan. 17, 9:05 a.m.: Gov. Newsom FY21 state budget proposal for enforcement text added
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