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Comment by bgorman | Hacker News Reader

The heart of the issue is big labor unions want more power, and independent contractor status is a threat to their power.

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Labor unions in the US are comparatively powerless next to countries with actual, functional unions that are quite capable of striking, and have little lobby.

No, the heart of the issue is definitely the dismal state of health care in the US.

Joe Biden, who many believe will be the next US president has stated "I am a union man, plain and simple". His whole political career has basically been bankrolled by labor unions. If that doesn't indicate the power labor unions have in the US, I don't know what else does.

Teachers Unions, UAW, and the AFLCIO are pretty much the strongest lobbies in America.

The campaign contributions of many other industry interest groups dwarfs those other interests, and that is evidently obvious when looking at the policies of the Democratic party, which would not even be a center left moderate party in most EU countries with actually strong labor interests.

Can you provide some sources on this? Would like to read about it.

Here is where the primary AB5 bill sponsors get their money:

https://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=37194&defa...

https://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=133178&def...

List of all sponsors:

https://legiscan.com/CA/sponsors/AB5/2019

As you can see "Labor" is by far the biggest sponsor to the politicans who pushed through this initiative.

I don’t understand, why is that surprising? After all the reason behind this bill is to prevent unfair labor conditions. It is literally the job of labor unions to push forward and lobby for bills like these.

I think you are guilty of bad faith reasoning here. First you state that “big labor unions want more power” and your evidence for that claim is “Labor unions push for bills that prevent bad labor practices”.

Instead of accusing me of acting in bad faith, how about you do some research instead of mudslinging on the internet. I have provided evidence. You have provided none.

To help point you in the right direction, why are the United Auto Workers acting in California when there are no unionized auto workers in California? These unions are always seeking to increase there member base because the more members they have the more powerful they are as an entity.

It is bad faith because the evidence you provide is accusing the unions of working towards their expressed interest, to protect the workers from bad labor practices.

Unions also have a notion of solidarity. What is good for workers in California is usually good for workers in New York. That is why you will often see unions acting across state (and industry) boundaries, in solidarity with other unions and non-union workers.

Your argument is as naive as saying politicians act in the best interest of their voters or that companies act in the best interests of their consumers.

Entities act in the best interests of themselves.

Unsure why this is getting downvoted. Anyone who actually follows the money in this debate knows that the unions are very heavily financially invested in this and donate tons of money to the politicians that support anything that increases their power and influence.

If unions were truly invested in the best interest of workers instead of the best interest of the union, they would value the desires of the 4/5 of drivers that want independent work as much as the 1/5 of drivers that want to be employees with benefits.

Is there an Uber/Lyft driver union?

No and prop 22 would make it near impossible to create some

This is an unfair critique. The whole point is that the drivers will get regular employment (as opposed to being contracted) and will be able to unionize under any driver’s union (or create a new union, or even some other more generic union).

It is being downvoted because it is making an unsound claim without any backing.

Most likely there is not a single explanation, usually issues like these are more complicated then that. There is no consensus on whether unions are more powerful in the US then elsewhere, I’m sure you can easily find examples—or spin the narrative—to back either case. And finally there is no evidence for some ulterior motive of driver’s unions, nor even a convincing narrative. Quite the contrary there is both evidence and a somewhat convincing narrative for why the ride-share companies would want to keep their workers from unionizing and asking for full-time worker’s benefits.

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