California’s AB5 — a law that eliminated most of the state’s gig workers — was so disastrous that President Biden wants to take it nationwide.
Make America California.
Gig workers are those who are classified as independent contractors as opposed to employees, and typically earn their living as Uber and Lyft drivers, Instacart, and Uber Eats deliverers, independent truckers, or freelance writers and photographers.
They may do it to pick up a few extra bucks in a weakening economy, or to work as they choose, free from the rules and constraints of corporate America.
New York Times labor reporter Noam Scheiber confirmed that the proposal was first advanced nationally during former President Obama’s seventh year in office — too late to implement it.
Mark Mix, the president of the National Right To Work Committee, told Newsmax that the reason for California’s AB5 was pretty straightforward.
"Under the law, you can’t unionize independent contractors. But you can unionize employees," he noted. "And so, from a revenue standpoint — from purely a business perspective — union officials had a vested interest in making this reclassification occur."
AB5 was devastating for the Golden State.
Within a month of it taking effect, California freelance journalists were routinely laid off because they wrote too many articles.
And it’s only gotten worse.
"Workers in more than 135 occupations claim that losing contractor status hurts them, while independent theater and arts groups are facing thousands of dollars in costs they can’t afford because they must now treat staff as employees," wrote Phillip Sprincin for City-Journal.
After three years the situation hasn’t improved.
"Opponents of the bill warned the law would devastate the longstanding careers of many independent businesspeople in the Golden State," wrote Jim Manley for The Hill.
"Three years later, it’s clear the critics had it right: AB5 has proven to be among the most ill-conceived state labor policies in recent memory."
On the other hand independent contractors create competition, which benefits everyone.
“It challenged the taxi monopoly . . . that’s probably unionized in most cases," observed Mix. "All of a sudden, that work gets taken away by a more innovative, efficient, more productive substitute."
Both the worker and consumer benefited.
The worker works on his one terms and his own schedule; the consumer enjoys lower rates and better service.
And the taxi industry cleaned up its own act in order to remain competitive.
"If you go to New York City now, the cabs are super-clean, they’re super-new, and the drivers are super-polite, because of competition in the marketplace," Mix said.
In America, the 50 states are often referred to as laboratories, because they have the ability to enact creative policy ideas that are tested within their own particular borders.
If successful, they can be adopted by other states or even at the federal level.
AB5 was not one of those success stories.
Manley observed that "If AB5’s restrictions were limited to California, that would be bad enough. But the Biden administration appears determined to bring these destructive labor restrictions to the national stage in the form of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act)."
Mix concluded that "those laboratories still work, when it comes to state policy when given the opportunity."
He gave state right to work laws, those that don’t make union membership a requirement of employment, as an example.
"But the federal government has gotten so big that it crowds out some of those innovative ideas." And instead of adopting them, "AB5 is one of those ideas that they’re trying to take national."
Mix said AB5 has nothing to do with improving the lot of the worker.
"It’s about unionization, it’s about increasing their forced dues revenue. And, of course in California, where there’s no right to work law, these workers are now employees and will be brought into union shops."
Biden vowed early on that he would make his administration the most pro-union in American history. But blue-collar workers say they don’t necessarily feel the love, according to a Bloomberg story.
From the time Franklin D. Roosevelt was president union members have shown strong support for the Democratic Party.
Some began drifting away during the Reagan years, Bloomberg noted. Biden is pushing the defection further along.
It’s almost as though their members are discovering that union bosses’ primary goal is collecting dues, so they can donate to and elect their favorite political candidates — people like Joe Biden — so they can increase their own power and influence.
It’s not working for California; it won’t work for America.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.