Where are the facts about A.B. 5?

A.B. 5 (Gonzalez) has shaken up a lot of freelance workers, disrupted their income streams and the ways that they have made a living. Writers who I know (of) have been negatively impacted by the legislation, publishers of news enterprises have had that they have had to change staffing practices because of it. It was created because of freelance laborers in the gig economy, specifically, those who contracted with transportation network corporations - predominantly Lyft and Uber - have been subjected to drastic decreases in their income after those two corporations.

On occasion, I have driven both Lyft and Uber. It's like any other job: if you put the time and the effort in, you get something out of it. I have been a supporter of A.B. 5 all along. I still support the law. I find Uber and Postmates' opposition to the law a prime example of amoral capitalism. I worked for Postmates one evening: their driver application is designed to confuse and startle drivers into accepting deliveries. All three companies take much more than half of either of the mark up to food delivered or one fare. None give a driver clear terms on what the break down of what payment would be for any offer of a fare or delivery before a driver can choose to accept or reject the work. All must have agents in Sacramento, there is no way that they could have missed the author announcing the legislation on social media; yet none of them tried to negotiate a law that they could work with.

Currently, the law is a work in progress. Omitting a challenge by plebiscite, I suspect that there will be plenty of tweaks to it at least throughout the current legislative session.

The law passed last autumn. I have heard from freelance journalists and writers, they have lost work because of this. The stories are real, but still, they are anecdotes. I ask for facts about the results of the legislation; I got silence instead:

The problem that anyone who opposes A.B.5 has is that few lack the capacity to not end up in the same pot with the neo-fascist ideologues who attack the bill's author because of their bigotry. There are a lot of people on social media who attack anything that Gonzalez does, from anything substantial to the most trivial. Those who do have good faith arguments against A.B. 5 have chosen to remain silent rather than be cast alongside those who blurt with no respect for themself or others (sic). Then I engage with people who are as rational about the legislation as those who oppose vaccinating children. As you can see, it didn't go well. These graduates from the Rupert Murdoch School of Civil Discourse aren't helping to fix A.B. 5 - they are more interested in burning it or Lorena Gonzalez or liberal governance down. That obscures the genuine flaws of the dominant half of the Partisan Duopoly in California.

The best example of that comes from the top: Governor Newsom didn't make an effort to separate homeless Californians from the mentally ill or substance-abusing Californians in his State of The State Speech today. Prop. 63 of 2004 does need to be put into effect, but those who need those services should be distinguished from those who were victims of laissez-faire government and capitalism. California Democrats won't tell the truth about their constituents' greed, misinformed paradigms or poor character - they just aren't willing to rock the boat in a way that will do any more than treat the symptoms of homelessness.

When there are meaningful statistics about the effects that A.B. 5 has had on gig workers or independent contractors,  Californians can have a meaningful discussion about the law. Only if that data makes it above the din made by ideologues and those who muddy up civil discourse, California will know if the law works for them.

A.B. 5 (Gonzalez) before the Uber Strike

That which is finished
A.B. 71 (Melendez and Kiley) is dead. That's just as well - this is what a legislation analyst has said about it:

The first reason is that AB71 is Republican backed (not that Republicans are bad, but they tend to back business before workers) and the language favors businesses at it gives them more leeway to determine classification. Instead of the ABC test as laid out in AB5, it is like the whole alphabet. Many ways that businesses could get out of classifying workers as employees, which saves them big money! I was speaking with a reporter yesterday about AB5, and I then asked her about AB71, she said she has been touch with legislators in the State and AB71 is dead in the water.

A.B. 5 is Scheduled for A Committee Hearing

A.B. 5 (Gonzalez) is scheduled for hearing in the Committee on Appropriations on May 16th - check for the agenda after May 9th.  Rideshare drivers need to make sure that it has lots of momentum to go through this committee hearing and the full Assembly. 

How to Contact your Assembly Members

1. Look up your home address on this page.
   
2. Find the contact information of your Assembly Member (not Senator).
3. Call them and tell them:
1. Your Name and Address
2. You're a rideshare driver or independent contractor with a ride company (use the term that you believe works best for you)
3. Your earnings were good, you could pay the bills, but the contracting company has reduced compensation while costs have risen.
4. You need protection from the whims of companies like Lyft and Uber.
5. The Assembly Member's support of A.B. 5 (Gonzalez) will protect your investment in driving as a way to earn money.

From The Sea, To The Mountains, To The Valleys, To The Deserts and Down To Baja

I'll see you at sunrise

I'm Ken Brucker. I ask for your consideration when you select the Local Chapter Coordinator of Southern California for the California National Party. As defined by the party's bylaws, I want to grow the places in California south of  35° 47′ 28″ / 35.791111° North latitude. That is a straight line that is the northern boundaries of San Bernardino, Kern and San Luis Obisbo counties.

Looking Forward

Some of the ways that I propose that we grow party membership and activism is doing plain, old retail organizing: loading up my minivan with my canopy, table, folding chairs, the party's handouts and banners, driving to meet people like you to talk to Californians about what we can do as an independent nation better and how we can reach that goal. We can also leverage technology to help us grow the movement in your community.

The party has a robust constituent management system with which we manage mailing lists, coordinate volunteers to staff events and manage donations. I'm working with the party's IT Director to develop that application to manage media contacts so that we can disseminate our own messaging about California independence instead of rogue actors in the movement driving the narrative about the movement. I also see that this can easily be converted to make a list of educators that we can reach out to so we can give presentations about the party and the movement.

Intersectionalism

If California nationalism is to succeed, it has to be many things. We need to be multicultural and take many interests into account. Tenemos que hablar en varios idiomas lo mejor que podemos a nuestros vecinos. If I could say that in Hmong, Tagalog, Farsi, Mandarin...and on down the list...I would. Not all women need the same things to be well and successful. There aren't just a few silver bullets what will solve California's problems, so we have to look at all of the issues. I want to work with you on creating solutions to those problems.

Experience with The Party

I'm not a plankowner in the party. I joined the party and started organizing San Diego County in January 2017. Since then, I have...

• written and printed material
• made presentations to groups about the movement
• organized and staffed many tents presenting the party:
• Beach Clean-Up in August, 2018
• December 2018 at the San Diego Stadium Swapmeet
• Late March 2019 at the Santa Fe Springs Swapmeet
• Solicited donations for and designed stand up banners
• Earth Fair, 2019 with lots of help from The Usual Suspects

Again, lots of people helped out with those events - you can see them in those pictures and I'm grateful to every one of them.

About Me

I'm a twice-married father of one son who is about to graduate from high school. I'm a graduate of U.C. Santa Barbara where I earned a B.A. in Communication Studies. I was awarded a certificate in Computer Information Sciences from the now-defunct Coleman College. I've lived in San Diego most of my life, but that was interrupted with stints in Isla Vista, Los Angeles (The Palms District) and Hayward. I currently work part-time as an independent contractor with ridesharing services (your first two guesses as to which business would probably be correct). I speak Spanish better than I can understand it.

Endorsements

Shankar Singnam

• Vice President, California Freedom Coalition
• Board Member, Independent California

Questions?

Ask in the comments below or e-mail me.

First Review of A.B. 5 2018-2019 session

There are two bills in the California Legislature this session which are intended to elevate the status of the gig worker, usually someone who works as an independent contractor and receives work by means of a mobile app. One is AB 71 (Melendez and Kiley). The other which this blog will be about is AB 5 (Gonzalez).

The bill is either brand new or is running into headwinds at the moment. It would take someone in Sacramento who knew the right questions to ask about the legislation to make the determination between either of those characterizations. The following about the bill is clear today:

• there are no co-authors
• it has not been assigned to a committee for review
• it is very brief
• there have been no modifications to it since it's first reading 91 calendar days ago

In essence, the bill is meant to put a court decision into law

Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 has many implications for companies that hire independent contractors - specifically gig workers. It has three tests that reclassify those who were independent contractors as employees:

(A) that the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact;

(B) that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and

(C) that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed.

Lyft, Uber, DoorDash and many other services all fall under that description.

One analysis of the B and C tests illustrates that there is a lot to clear up about compensation (wage or salary):

For example, prong B of the ABC test is particularly troublesome for any businesses that use independent contractors to deliver or provide their core product or service. In applying the ABC test to Dynamex, the Court noted that a class of delivery drivers could be certified under prong B because the question of whether the delivery drivers were performing outside the usual course of Dynamex’s business could clearly be resolved on a classwide basis. Indeed, delivery services—which are provided by the delivery drivers—are the very core of Dynamex’s business. 

Lastly, it is not yet clear whether the ABC test applies to wage claims that do not arise from a wage order. For example, a claim for reimbursement for business expenses such as fuel and tolls that are not governed by a wage order and are obtainable only under section 2802 of the Labor Code may still be controlled by the Borello test. Indeed, this was the holding of the Court of Appeal in Dynamex, and the Supreme Court stated that it was not reaching the issue. Also left open by the Supreme Court’s decision is whether the “exercises control over the wages, hours or working conditions” prong of the wage orders’ definition of “employ” is applicable to classification questions outside the joint employment context.

Current language in legislation AB 71 could clear that up.

Will Marco Rubio drag the USA into a war about Venezuela?

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1099477470691184641.html?refreshed=1550978052

Does “upzoning”—allowing taller, denser housing to be built—actually work?

Are all of the cranes you see downtown doing any good?
Does “upzoning”—allowing taller, denser housing to be built—actually work?

My suggestion(s) to support child refugees from Central America

I just don't think that our Federal representatives are getting the necessary message to support the asylum claims that are due them. So I put together an essay with a message to our Federal representatives with step-by-step instructions on how to support the refugees.

• Look up your federal representatives:
• your representative
• your Senators
• The President
• navigate to the comments or mail me or what ever that Member of Congress calls the page where you write in
• Copy this essay in the message box on the message page
  or
• paste this link to it
  — http://goo.gl/ETrm3D —
  with your own comments
• Share this page with friends on all kinds of social media
  See the buttons further down this page?
• Share the message with news media.
• bookmark this page

Thanks, some kid could have a better life with your efforts.