Truckers of all types hurt by law
The government does it again! The Supreme Court recently ruled that it will not hear trucking’s AB 5 case. Out of touch with the working people, California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez authored the controversial Assembly Bill 5, which puts a strict definition on who is an independent contractor and who is a company employee (called the ABC test), and in our case, on truckers.
Without realizing or even caring what the results would be, this bill was approved by Governor Newsom. President of Teamsters Joint Council 7 Jason Rabinowitz called it “a significant victory in the Teamsters decades-long battle against misclassification in trucking.” And Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brian added, “Finally, port truck drivers and so many others” (he lumped all types of trucking together) “across California will have the opportunity to join together” (oh yes! join the Teamsters and pay monthly dues) “and earn a fair wage that allows them to support their families.” Shame on the California lawmakers and those in office in California for again bowing down to the unions, who donate large sums of money.
In the first place, this law effectively takes away a person’s right to choose to own their own business, their way. They accomplished this according to the laws of the land. Many found that they could not earn enough as an employee to even buy a house. That is why they went into business for themselves, having been employees already. I have seen this many times over with former employees who became independent contractors, and I have seen them prosper as never before. I knew what they were making before, having worked at my present job for the same trucking company for 17 years.
But now, after investing years and funds buying and running their own trucking business, paying for all of the yearly cumbersome state and federal required permits, taxes, insurance, etc., that every business has to legally have (they have their own authority, are not working under another company’s licenses or permits), they now find this right taken away from them by the stroke of a pen, by a clueless government that has overreached once again.
Because of this law’s impact to hundreds of professions and the backlash thereof, Lorena Gonzalez has already exempted many of them with AB 2257. Gonzalez states: “Having heard additional feedback from a variety of freelance writers, photographers, and journalists, we are making changes to Assembly Bill 5 that accommodate their needs and still provide protections from misclassification.”
But she wouldn’t listen to the feedback from truckers even as they marched on the Capitol. That’s what happens when an ignorant lawmaker and government doesn’t understand the far-reaching implications from making a one-size fits all bill. She should not be allowed to pick and choose who she wants it to apply to. It should apply to everyone, or it should apply to no one. Period. This bill revises it so that dozens of other independent contractors, besides those noted in her statement above, are exempted from certain parts of the ABC Test so that they can continue in their lines of business (see the whole list online).
For our valley, the results will be visible to all. This will affect every type of construction business and will greatly affect projects already underway, such as the High Speed Rail (whether you are for it or not) and highway construction projects in every county in California.
On the way to work, you see the projects in Bakersfield and Kern County that are dependent on independent contractors (look at all of the different names on the construction trucks you pass) in order to have enough trucks to do the job. No individual company is able to furnish as many trucks as the projects require in order to complete the jobs in a timely manner, so we rely on and work with our fellow aggregate truckers, as has been the case for many years now. So, if it seems like our local ongoing highway construction projects have been taking forever, well guess what, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!