It’s pretty ironic that Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his support of Assembly Bill 5 on Monday in an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee — the very product, newspapers, his declaration could have a big hand in crippling.
The bill, if passed as is, would be a disaster for the already struggling newspaper business, journalism and a free press.
AB5 would codify a court decision that created a new test for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, reclassifying hundreds of thousands of contractors to company employees covered by labor laws.
The legislation, written by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, includes exemptions for doctors, lawyers, architects, accountants and other professions, but it does not include an exemption for newspaper carriers.
It should.
As Gonzalez noted in recent tweets, the days of California youth hopping on bicycles and delivering papers throughout their neighborhoods are long gone.
The business model she remembers just doesn’t exist anymore.
Today’s carriers often deliver for more than one newspaper. They are subject to long-standing state regulations that allow them to pick their routes and negotiate rates.
Classifying them as employees of a single publication would limit their opportunities and significantly drive up the cost of newspaper delivery.
Some newspapers will halt print delivery altogether, especially in rural areas.
Others will be forced to deliver their products by mail, delaying readers’ access, often by days. Subscribers with an option to continue daily delivery will pay hundreds of dollars more a year.
Thousands of carriers will lose their jobs.
Newspapers, which are critical to a well-functioning democracy, would become even more scarce, and the public’s access to credible, objective news about their communities and government will be diminished. Who will be the watchdog when newspapers are dead?
Newspapers face enough challenges without lawmakers needlessly making things worse.
Gonzalez wrote AB5 in the wake of the state Supreme Court’s sweeping Dynamex ruling, which has far-reaching implications for the emerging gig economy. Gonzalez’ goal is to establish how the decision will be enforced. Newspapers are being caught in that crossfire.
If Newsom signs AB5 into law in its current form, some 2 million independent contractors in California will be reclassified as employees under state law.
Gonzalez has already amended the bill to exempt a number of professions, but she and the governor have resisted reasonable calls to include newspaper carriers.
That’s a mistake.
As an op-ed writer, the governor clearly understands the service newspapers provide to the public and their importance to the democratic process.
He should act now to protect them and support an exemption for newspaper carriers.
![It is not yet clear whether the alternative protein products known variously as “lab-grown,” “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat will deliver the environmental benefits touted by their boosters or when they will be appealing and cheap enough to be competitive with conventional poultry, beef and pork. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis already has made up his mind, deeming these products so repellent that selling them should be a crime. When he signed the nation’s first ban on cultivated meat last week, DeSantis said he was “fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in […]](https://www.whittierdailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/AP21126815203874.jpg?w=525 "It is not yet clear whether the alternative protein products known variously as “lab-grown,” “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat will deliver the environmental benefits touted by their boosters or when they will be appealing and cheap enough to be competitive with conventional poultry, beef and pork. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis already has made up his mind, deeming these products so repellent that selling them should be a crime. When he signed the nation’s first ban on cultivated meat last week, DeSantis said he was “fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in […]")
