California is forcing truckers out of work — and the country will feel the effects

By Zachary Faria of The Washington Examiner.

"California is winning its war on freelance truckers. With no allies among Democratic state leaders, the truckers have taken it upon themselves to protest the decision, but the effects will reach far beyond them and far beyond California’s borders.

The Supreme Court declined to take up the truckers’ challenge to California’s AB 5, the anti-freelance, anti-freedom law designed to restrict independent contractors and suffocate the gig economy. Truck drivers have brought their protests to Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland, but it seems unlikely that California Democrats will carve out exemptions for them as they have for industries they like, such as those of musicians, photographers, journalists, and artists.

The result is that restrictions will be forced on some 70,000 truck owner-operators, and supply chain problems will become worse. In Oakland, for example, 90% of the 9,000 trucks that work the ports daily are independent contractors. According to Bill Aboudi, the owner of AB Trucking in Oakland, he will no longer be able to use drivers who own their own trucks anymore, and he will have to reduce his workload as a result.

Nevada Trucking Association CEO Paul Enos said the trucking industry is already 80,000 drivers short and that more will quit in California now that they are no longer allowed to be independent contractors.

Supposedly, though, this is all for their own good. California Democrats had to run these truckers out of their jobs because they shouldn’t like being independent contractors, even if they say they did like it. California Democrats know what’s good for you, even when that means ruining your livelihood and forcing you to the unemployment line.

The effects won’t be limited to California. According to the White House, 72% of American goods are shipped by truck, “and in most communities, trucks are the only form of delivery.” Of course, the Biden administration supports California’s AB 5 and wants to impose it on the rest of the country because, like California’s Democrats, national Democrats think they know how, when, and where you should be allowed to work. If you disagree, that’s too bad.

California’s busybody legislature has spent the past several years running the Golden State into the ground, but every so often, its decisions bleed out into the rest of the country. California’s master class in destroying sectors of its own economy will reverberate throughout the country, but at least California Democrats were able to put those truckers in their place — for their own good, of course."