(REASON) – Independent truckers Wednesday shut down the terminals at the Port of Oakland in California to protest the impacts of a terrible labor law that may require them to become employees of trucking companies—regardless of whether they want these jobs.
An estimated 70,000 people who own and drive their own trucks in California may soon feel the effects of A.B. 5, a law passed in 2019 that controls and severely restricts who can work as independent contractors within the state. The initial bill came as a response to a 2018 California Supreme Court decision about truck drivers that established a strict test to determine whether a worker should be treated as a company employee or an independent contractor.
Though supporters of A.B. 5 insisted the bill would protect workers from predatory companies and ensure that they receive appropriate benefits and overtime pay, it was a massive disaster for people who genuinely wanted to work as private contractors and be their own bosses. It restricted the ability of freelancers so severely that a subsequent bill needed to be passed so that writers, artists, translators, real estate agents, and folks in many other lines of work could keep their independent gigs. Then, the primary targets of A.B. 5, ride-share and home delivery services like Uber, got relief from California voters through Proposition 22, which passed in November 2020.
The post Truckers shut down California port, fighting for right to be their own bosses appeared first on WND.
