n an incredibly tone-deaf display of arrogance, a California state Democratic lawmaker has mocked unemployed, desperate freelancers who are vehemently opposed to a recently passed law forbidding them from making a living. During a Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement hearing this week, lawmakers and officials heard testimony and arguments for and against SB 806 and SB 990, legislation introduced by Republican senators John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) and Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) to immediately suspend the disastrous AB5 law that has killed independent contracting and freelancing jobs in the state.
Moorlach and Grove, in particular, have led the way in pushing back against the giant job destroyer along with other state Republicans. Because even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit which led state officials to close “non- essential” businesses, destroying millions of jobs overnight, hundreds of thousands of other jobs across 150 designations were also lost overnight thanks to AB5, which was actually meant to only affect Uber and Lyft.
So California was already dealing with rising unemployment and the law’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat, has been blasted for AB5 since.
Like Gonzalez, Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson has also been a major supporter of unions in the state legislature, so it wasn’t any surprise to see her enthusiastically support AB5.
But what’s been surprising is watching supportive lawmakers like Gonzalez and Jackson be so cavalier and dismissive of anyone who opposes the law or has been adversely affected by it, employment-wise. That includes tens of thousands of freelance writers, artists, interpreters, dancers, translators and more — their pleas to have the law suspended until the legislature can fix it being dismissed.
Following the public comment period at the committee hearing, Jackson once again dismissed concerns of thousands of hard-working, though newly- unemployed, Californians when she callously referred to their jobs as “lollipops.”
“I appreciate that some independent contractors are upset. AB5 took away their lollipop,” she said.
Needless to say, Jackson was owned online, as one after another, her tone- deaf callousness was called out.
