On March 13, a California appeals court moved to uphold the 2020 ballot measure Proposition 22 — the gig economy’s response to a state bill that would have doomed freelancing in the Golden State. The new ruling overturns a lower court decision that had nullified Prop 22, meaning that worker independence lives on in California — for now, at least. But Big Labor won’t give up so easily: Service Employees International Union (SEIU) intends to appeal Prop 22’s new reprieve, indicating a long legal slog still awaits the gig economy.
Given its support at the polls and popularity among gig drivers themselves, Prop 22’s legal victory should be cause for celebration. But for mega-unions like SEIU, which co-sponsored both the campaign against Prop 22 and the subsequent battle to overturn it in the courts, Prop 22’s success threatens the status quo.
Big Labor makes big bucks by convincing workers, politicians, and the public that the worker serves the corporation as a replaceable cog in a machine. With the reality and draw of independent work, businesses and unions must reimagine their workplace structure and governance to adapt to the ever-increasing independence and value of the individual worker. And that’s a problem for unions: By changing the public’s conception of what work can be and what workers can do, the gig economy and the independent worker are disrupting the “big business” model keeping Big Labor afloat.
The Law to Limit Gig Workers
Prop 22, passed by popular vote in November 2020,
