Thread by @thekimkavin

1/15 The people who want to wipe out independent contractors are changing their messaging.

Pay attention to what’s happening right now in the press. Our opponents are trying to shift the narrative—with impeccable timing, ahead of upcoming congressional hearings on our issue.

2/15 Two days ago, this story ran in the Los Angeles Times. In its first paragraph, the writer suggests (falsely) that virtually all independent contractors are being victimized by algorithms that are being used to determine things like pay rates.

latimes.com/business/techn…

3/15 The story is based on “research” by Veena Dubal—a name well known to us. She’s one of the “researchers” whose work underpinned the mess in California that led to the #FreelanceBusting ABC Test law known as #AB5.

uchastings.edu/2018/05/14/uc-…

4/15 Note the shift of who the “bad guy” is in the new narrative. Until now, it has been “widespread misclassification” of people as independent contractors (which has proved false).

With this new narrative, the bad guy is algorithms.

5/15 Today, two days later, we have this story in The New York Times.

“With low-income labor, workers may find themselves entirely dependent on the largess and the algorithms of the platforms they use.”

nytimes.com/2023/04/13/mag…

6/15 Today’s story quotes another “researcher” we know well: David Weil. He also says almost nobody should be an independent contractor. His “fissured workplace” language underpins gov’t attempts at #FreelanceBusting. He thinks #AB5 didn’t go far enough.

a.co/d/3zhJgY

7/15 His framing of the issue is used in this New York Times story:

“The depth of this particular fissure—the obvious way these platforms maximize control over workers while minimizing obligations to them—has sparked multiple battles over how the law should categorize laborers.”

8/15 Today’s story goes on to draw a distinction between different types of independent contractors—which is new, coming from our opponents.

They are no longer saying we are all exploited as independent contractors. They are now saying:

9/15 “The idea of the independent high-earner versus the independent low-earner. Freelance by choice and freelance by force. They have totally different experiences and totally different needs.”

nytimes.com/2023/04/13/mag…

10/10 The article goes on to call for the same thing Dubal and Weil have always wanted, and what we’ve been fighting to stop all along:

“The strongest alternative to all of this is a standard called the ‘ABC Test’ … The House of Representatives has twice passed the #PROAct…”

11/15 Think about the narrative shift:

We used to all be framed as exploited, misclassified people in need of ABC Test protection.

Now, we are being framed as privileged freelancers by choice who stand in the way of using the ABC Test to stop algorithmic wage discrimination.

12/15 The thing none of these articles says is that the ABC Test all but eliminates the right to choose self-employment—which has been legal since the nation’s founding. Apps are new, but self-employment is not. Choosing to be one’s own boss is a deeply common American story.

13/15 In the narrative now being pushed against us, this right to choose self-employment is being lumped in with the narrative of “privilege.” If we actually fight to protect our right to choose self-employment, well, now we’re all just privileged Karens from the suburbs.

14/15 The good news here is that our opponents clearly think they *need* to change their messaging. That’s because they are losing the war they declared in our livelihoods—a war that will be fully on display in Congress next week.

kiley.house.gov/posts/rep-kile…

15/15 The bad news for our opponents? We can now see them coming from a mile away.

The #FreelanceBusting ABC Test is a disgrace, and we will never, ever relent on protecting our right to choose self-employment.

#FightForFreelancers