Would Reform-Minded Gov. Hiram Johnson Back Gig Worker Freedom?

Commentary When Gov. Hiram Johnson convinced California voters to pass his Progressive Era good-government reforms in 1911, he never could have imagined the crazed state California would be in today. Yet his reforms instituting recalls, initiatives, and referendums are all that is keeping what’s left of livability in this state. That’s especially true of attempts to overthrow Proposition 22 from 2020, which restored to app-based drivers in such services as Lyft and Uber the right to remain independent contractors. It passed with a hefty 59 percent of votes. Prop. 22 was needed to counter Assembly Bill 5 from 2019 which, in Ballotpedia’s summary, “created the presumption that a worker is an employee, rather than an independent contractor.” And it created a complicated set of parameters, called the ABC Test, for drivers to get out of the AB 5 restrictions. AB 5 was strongly backed by labor unions hoping to unionize the ride services....