Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Triggers the Gig Economy's Stockholm Syndrome
Is Lorena Gonzalez really an enemy of the people?
I haven’t seen anybody use those exact words on social media yet, but there are a wagon load of equally loaded descriptors floating around.
Just in time for the holidays in December, a gaggle descended upon National City’s Olivewood House to wave signs and otherwise disrupt a celebration of her eighth annual diaper collection drive, which this year surpassed collecting more than half a million diapers for needy families.
Gonzalez, we were told, was responsible for threatening the livelihoods of people throughout the State of California.
Was this the same Lorena Gonzalez responsible for bills enabling sick paid leave for 6.5 million part-time workers, overtime for farm workers, protection from sexual harassment for janitorial workers, and protecting the undocumented in work-related injury cases?
Apparently it was.
You mean this Lorena Gonzalez, the Voice of San Diego’s choice for 2019’s Voice of the Year?
Her profile has grown so large that when San Diego Republican Party Chairman Tony Krvaric lobs insults, he uses Gonzalez as a stand-in for the Democratic Party itself, and refers to her husband, County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, not by name but as “Lorena Gonzalez’s husband.” (Score one for equality, I guess, that men can now share the honor of being derided as nameless spouses.)
She tackles so many gnarly issues that even the measures that don’t generate as much coverage would probably qualify as the most high-profile thing any other legislator had ever done. This year alone, she passed a law ending mandatory arbitration as a condition of employment, and one extending the statute of limitations for victims of childhood abuse – both monumental shifts whose impacts will reverberate nationally. And yet, those were not in the top two of her biggest endeavors this year. (Let me reiterate: Gonzalez’s third-most high-profile measure this year could bankrupt the Catholic Church.)
Gonzalez once again took a leading role, alongside Sen. Richard Pan, in an effort to rein in vaccine exemptions, re-igniting a volatile conversation about the line between personal medical choices and societal responsibility. That conversation grew so loud and unruly that it resulted in an assault on Pan, and multiple disruptions to legislative proceedings, culminating in the most memorable one, in which a demonstrator threw a cup of menstrual blood onto lawmakers in the Senate chambers.
Yup, that’s her.
While the folks outside the diaper collection celebration were certainly entitled to express their views, one has to wonder about the targeting and timing of the protest. It’s no secret that companies impacted by her legislation have been paying for warm bodies to make their case.
Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for my check from George Soros.
They got their requisite airtime on right wing KUSI to let the world know how stupid the assemblywoman must be to sponsor legislation (AB5) mandating employers to reclassify many people considered independent contractors as employees.
Never mind that there was already a court ruling on the books leaving employers exposed to legal and regulatory consequences for misclassifying workers; it was just a matter of time until lawsuits started piling up.
Millions of people have been short-changed through misclassification. Truck drivers in Los Angeles got negative compensation after “expenses” were deducted. People in low profile service jobs were left with no choice but to work longer and harder for less pay.
There was, and continues to be, massive exploitation by companies uninterested in the consequences of their actions on the broader society. In many ways, the so-called gig economy is representative of everything that’s wrong with the modern day production of goods and services.
From the Associated Press:
The law puts tough restrictions on who can be independent contractors or freelancers rather than employees. Supporters say it addresses inequities created by the growth of the gig economy, including the employment practices of ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft that use contractors. Company owners with independent contractors must now decide whether to hire them as employees or look for help in other states. Another alternative: asking these workers to start their own businesses, a setup the law allows...
…The law approved by the California Legislature in September codifies a 2018 ruling by the state’s Supreme Court that said workers misclassified as independent contractors lose rights and protections including a minimum wage, workers’ compensation and unemployment compensation. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought against the delivery company Dynamex; workers around the country have complained that services like Uber and Lyft have misclassified them as well.
Corporations have responded by doing what they’ve always done: fire people and fight regulation. Individuals on the chopping block have responded by aiming their wrath at the messenger.
It’s a classic modern day reactionary response, no doubt encouraged and sponsored by the real winners when necessary: the needs of the many are to be subjugated for the gain of the few who’ve managed to survive the gauntlet. In other words, “I’ve got mine, screw the rest of you all.”
https://twitter.com/LorenaSGonzalez/status/1211301617154191361?s=20
The process of sorting through who is and isn’t an independent contractor as the law made its way through the legislature wasn’t quick or easy. It’s been made clear, both by the Governor who signed it and legislative leaders, that there’s more to be done.
The new law allows workers to be classified as independent contractors only if companies don’t have the right to control their work and how it is done. A number of factors go into making that determination, including how closely the worker is supervised — for example, who sets their hours. The work being done must not be part of the company’s regular business, and the worker’s occupation must be distinct from the company’s; in other words, a graphic designer cannot be an independent contractor for a graphic design firm.
There are exemptions for professionals like doctors, lawyers, architects and insurance brokers, but they must have the freedom to set their own hours, negotiate their own fees and exercise their own judgment as they do their jobs. Workers like graphic artists, freelance writers and travel agents can also be exempt if they have similar autonomy. And people who work in barber shops, hair and nail salons and spas can have exemptions, but they have to set their own rates and hours, choose their own clients and be paid directly by the clients.
https://youtu.be/_9gKI5J9mtI
Three of the companies who’ve based their business plans on using contract help have announced plans and set aside money to redefine the law’s definitions to suit their purposes via a ballot measure in November 2020.
Enforcement of AB5 won’t begin until July, 2020, and it has been made clear that changes in who’s covered will be made retroactive.
And Assemblywoman Gonzalez has made it clear she’s open to fixes.
https://twitter.com/LorenaSGonzalez/status/1211294561009459200?s=20
It’s obvious many of the folks who’ve chosen to go into attack mode (and I’m not going to repeat their nonsense, because it’s offensive on so many levels) are truly convinced their captors are doing a good thing for them.
This is called the Stockholm Syndrome:
Stockholm syndrome is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity. Emotional bonds may be formed between captor and captives, during intimate time together, but these are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims.
There’s no denying that bad things have already happened to people in anticipation of AB5. There’s also no denying that this economy --of which contract labor is now a major part of-- is not working for the vast majority of people.
Here’s Jason Rosenberg at Mother Jones:
There is a case to be that freelancers are being harmed by being classified as employees. Some freelancers want to forgo certain benefits—healthcare, overtime protections—tied to employment in favor of a flexible schedule or job freedom. The prescriptive, and speed-limit like 35 “submissions” per outlet to define employee versus an independent contractor is imperfect. But the mistake is the belief that AB5 suddenly changed all of this. To change this model, you’d have to undo years of the law tying employment status to worker’s rights.
While the libertarians at the Pacific Research Institute may consider this attempt at fairness a government order “holding back the natural evolution of work,” they’re ignoring the destructive impact of the 21st century “free market” on actual humans.Trickle down, whether it’s less taxes on the wealthy or less payroll taxes on businesses, DOES NOT WORK.
From the Michael Hiltzick at the Los Angeles Times:
Take Vox Media, which announced on Monday that it was cutting off more than California 200 writers who wrote “thousands of blog posts” in 2019 for its SB Nation sports website. The action, Vox said, is “necessary in light of California’s new independent contractor law, which ... restricts contractors from producing more than 35 written content ‘submissions’ per year.”
Vox’s statement didn’t happen to mention a couple of federal class-action cases that accuse the company of systematically shortchanging writers and editors by classifying them as “contractors” rather than “employees” — exactly the kind of behavior that AB 5 was designed to eradicate. Vox has denied the assertions. We’ve asked the company for further comment, but haven’t heard back…
In 2017, lawsuits filed by editors at SB Nation described a business model that involved working editors and writers unrelentingly for low pay. Cheryl Bradley, who had signed on in 2013 to help run SB Nation’s site devoted to the Colorado Avalanche team of the National Hockey League, asserted that she regularly published five or six articles a week while also managing its Facebook and Twitter accounts and live-tweeting during games. She regularly worked 30 to 40 hours per week, and sometimes 50 hours.
For this, she says, she was paid $125 a month.
UPDATE: On Monday, Uber and Postmates sued California over Assembly Bill 5.
Via the Sacramento Bee:
The ride-sharing tech giant and food-delivery service became the latest to challenge AB 5, joining the trucking industry, organizations representing freelance journalists and others. The landmark legislation, signed in September by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is set to go into effect Jan. 1 and is already facing the prospect of a ballot fight launched by Uber and others.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Uber Technologies Inc. and Postmates Inc., a delivery service based in San Francisco, said the law is unconstitutional and will “stifle workers and companies in the on-demand economy.” They argued that the gig economy gives its workers, who have been classified as independent contractors, “opportunities to earn money when and where they want, with unprecedented independence and flexibility.” The lawsuit seeks an injunction blocking implementation of AB 5...
“...The one clear thing we know about uber is they will do anything to try to exempt themselves from state regulations that make us all safer and their driver employees self-sufficient,” Gonzalez said in a prepared statement. “In the meantime, Uber chief executives will continue to become billionaires while too many of their drivers are forced to sleep in their cars.”
Going beyond the question of winners and losers with the Assemblymember’s legislation, there are other factors at play.
The cult of anti-vaxxers impacted by Gonzalez’ role in limiting their excuses for endangering others have used the uproar to amplify their grievances. Once again, the needs of these few are supposed to be considered more important than the needs of us all.
And then there are the various mutations of MAGA, with their racism, misogyny, and dedication to “me, mine, and more money” who’ve lept into the fray. Reading through Lorena Gonzalaz’ Twitter feed is like finding a Who’s Who of California deplorables.
To hear them tell it, it’s organized labor that’s the real problem and this gives them license to engage in personal slander. When called out, the inevitable response is whataboutism.
Gonzalez isn’t perfect. Neither are all her legislative accomplishments. And by virtue of her rise in politics she’s certainly played the system to her personal and ideological advantage. Whatever disagreements or differences I may have with her performance pale in comparison to what she’s accomplished.
What I find particularly droll are the hallucinations all of these folks have about impacting the Assemblywoman’s re-election chances or her future aspirations for elected office.
Obviously they’ve never spent any time in the 80th Assembly District.
Three out of four of her constituents thought enough of her performance to send her back to Sacramento in the last election because they can see somebody who’s making a difference.
The keyboard warriors on Twitter don’t stand a chance.
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Lead image via Mark Warner / Flickr