Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Close After Funding Cut, in Blow to Local Media

1 day ago

‘Freedom Week’: California Gun Owners Rush to Buy Ammo After Court Ruling

1 day ago

Wall Street Selloff Sparked by Trump Tariffs, Amazon Results, Weak Payrolls

1 day ago

US Construction Spending Extends Decline in June

1 day ago

Global Shares in Red After US Jobs Data, Trump’s Tariff Salvo

1 day ago

Construction of $200M Trump Ballroom at the White House to Begin in September

2 days ago

US Senate Committee Backs $1 Billion for Ukraine in Pentagon Spending Bill

2 days ago

Trump Says Mexico Trade Deal Extended for 90 Days

2 days ago

Fresno Unified Trustee Susan Wittrup Responds to $162,000 Payout

3 days ago
Big Tech or Big Labor? 2020 Democrats Line up With Unions
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
September 3, 2019

Share

SACRAMENTO — Thousands of miles from the union halls of Pennsylvania and Michigan, organized labor is flexing its muscles in a pitched battle with Big Tech.
And the Democratic Party’s 2020 class isn’t being shy about picking sides.
In a rare injection of presidential politics into a state policy debate, virtually every major Democratic White House hopeful except Joe Biden has waded into a California clash between labor unions and tech giants such as Uber and Lyft over the very definition of work in a changing economy. In the run-up to Labor Day, Democrats lined up behind a labor-backed bill that would make it harder for tech companies to classify workers as independent contractors, who aren’t entitled to minimum wage or workers’ compensation.
It’s a debate with national implications that labor unions love and the tech giants that created the on-demand delivery industry loathe. It also marks a fresh test of organized labor’s relevance and strength in the age of Donald Trump, who won the presidency in part by peeling away working-class voters long loyal to Democrats in a handful of pivotal Midwestern states.
But in 2020, just as the nature of labor is changing, so too is the notion of the “labor vote.”
Voters in many traditionally union-dominated manufacturing areas were once a reliable Democratic constituency, but they have gradually drifted to Republicans, driven more by cultural issues such as guns, abortion and immigration than by wages, benefits and pensions. Union members also are shrinking as a total of the overall vote.

Highlighting the Renewed Power of Organized Labor

Still, in states with growing service and public sectors, labor has shown it is still capable of mounting large, influential campaigns on the minimum wage, health care and workers’ rights. Democrats largely have fallen in line, risking blowback from donors and voters in the powerful tech industry.

“It says something about where the candidates think the primary voters are on this issue. [They] may believe that labor can be more helpful to them than the high-tech companies can be to them in a caucus state or a primary.” — Zev Yaroslavsky, a former Democratic supervisor in Los Angeles County who now works at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
“It says something about where the candidates think the primary voters are on this issue,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former Democratic supervisor in Los Angeles County who now works at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. They “may believe that labor can be more helpful to them than the high-tech companies can be to them in a caucus state or a primary.”
From its earliest days, the 2020 Democratic primary has highlighted the renewed power of organized labor in presidential politics.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren launched her candidacy at the site of a famous labor union strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Democratic front-runner Biden held his first rally at a Teamsters union hall in Pittsburgh. And under pressure from organized labor, Bernie Sanders recently added additional language to his “Medicare for All” plan to provide additional oversight for union members.
“Candidates understand that our members have sky-high expectations, and that’s being reflected in their campaigns,” said AFL-CIO spokesman John Weber.

Courtship Is Playing out Aggressively in California

The Democrats’ intense courtship of organized labor reflects a new urgency for the party after Trump’s relative success with working-class voters in 2016. Trump lost the majority of AFL-CIO voters nationwide, according to data collected the union, but he outperformed previous Republicans.
Specifically, Trump earned 37% of the AFL-CIO vote in 2016 compared with Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 56%. Four years earlier, Republican Mitt Romney earned 33% compared with President Barack Obama’s 65%.
The courtship is playing out aggressively in California, which has a new, early primary date and new sway in the nomination process.
Warren was the first to comment on the dispute between labor and big tech in the state, prompting home-state Sen. Kamala Harris, also running for the White House, to follow suit. Sanders has pushed similar legislation at the federal level for years and has expressed strong support for the California proposal.
Among other candidates, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, rallied with rideshare drivers outside Uber’s San Francisco headquarters last week, while former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke has outlined similar plans and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said he supports the bill.
Biden, a Pennsylvania native who casts himself as a champion for organized labor, is staying silent for now, perhaps weary of getting in the middle of two powerful interest groups.

Photo of supporters rallying in Sacramento
In this Aug. 28, 2019, photo, supporters of a measure to limit when companies can label workers as independent contractors rally at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. California lawmakers are debating a bill that would make companies like Uber and Lyft label their workers as employees, entitling them to minimum wage and benefits. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

Organized Labor Is Positioned to Lend Significant Resources to Candidates

The presidential attention has shone a spotlight on a growing political headache for an important part of the tech industry — headquartered in California — as it fends off pressure over privacy issues and election security. Democrats have struggled with just how cozy to get with tech companies that are revolutionizing the economy in ways many Americans enjoy but that are upending traditional business models.

In 2020, a candidate’s willingness to confront big tech has increasingly become a sign of their progressive bona fides, even as they court young people who use the services and the tech workers who contribute to their campaigns.
In 2020, a candidate’s willingness to confront big tech has increasingly become a sign of their progressive bona fides, even as they court young people who use the services and the tech workers who contribute to their campaigns.
While union membership is down nationwide, organized labor is positioned to lend significant resources to candidates. In 2016, for example, the total labor sector contributed more than $217 million to campaigns nationwide with almost 90% going to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Beyond money, labor unions can provide volunteers to campaigns to help with knocking on doors, making calls and other essential work that often distinguishes successful campaigns.
If passed, California’s law would be the strictest in the nation when it comes to classifying workers. The new labor would entitle workers to minimum wage, workers compensation, unemployment insurance and benefits such as paid sick days.
The rules would apply across the economy, but its impact on Uber, Lyft and meal delivery companies such as Postmates and DoorDash is dominating the debate. The companies say that treating their workers as employees would upend businesses designed around worker flexibility.

A Change in California Is Likely to Have Ripples Across the Country

“We would become vastly different services,” said Adrian Durbin, senior director of communication at Lyft.
This past week, Uber, Lyft and DoorDash threatened to spend $90 million on a November 2020 state ballot measure if they cannot make a deal specific to their workers.
The Democratic candidates don’t seem to be buying tech’s arguments. Buttigieg rallied Tuesday in front of Uber’s San Francisco headquarters with drivers on a three-day pilgrimage from Los Angeles to Sacramento. “If you’re working a gig that means you’re a worker and you ought to be protected as a worker,” he said.
Harris, though a campaign spokesman last week, backed the bill even though she has ties to Uber, where her brother-in-law, Tony West, is general counsel. The consulting firm running her campaign, SCRB Strategies, is paid to lobby California lawmakers on Uber’s behalf.
A change in California, the most populous state, is likely to have ripples across the country as both the federal government and the states wrestle with questions that arise from new technology and services.
Illustrating the stakes for labor about who controls the White House, the California law could set up a clash with the Trump administration, which has issued guidance saying gig workers are contractors, meaning they can’t unionize. That’s a reversal of the Obama administration.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

India Will Buy Russian Oil Despite Trump’s Threats, Officials Say

DON'T MISS

The US Said It Had No Choice but to Deport Them to a Third Country. Then It Sent Them Home

DON'T MISS

Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara

DON'T MISS

Fresno’s Dog Daze Fest Returns With The Chainsmokers Headlining

DON'T MISS

Willow the Streetwise Poodle Mix Gets a Second Chance

DON'T MISS

Newsom Wants Voters to Weigh In on New Congressional Districts in November

DON'T MISS

Kia America Recalls 201,149 US Telluride Vehicles

DON'T MISS

US Reviewing Visa Denial for Venezuelan Little League Players, State Department Says

DON'T MISS

Hamas Says It Won’t Disarm Unless Independent Palestinian State Established

DON'T MISS

Gifford Fire Grows to 23,588 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties

UP NEXT

Gifford Fire Grows to 23,588 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties

UP NEXT

US Judges Speak Out About Death Threats, ‘Swattings,’ and ‘Pizza Doxings’

UP NEXT

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Close After Funding Cut, in Blow to Local Media

UP NEXT

Ghislaine Maxwell Moved From Florida Prison to Lower-Security Facility

UP NEXT

‘Freedom Week’: California Gun Owners Rush to Buy Ammo After Court Ruling

UP NEXT

Yosemite’s Largest Campground Reopens Friday After $26.2 Million Renovation

UP NEXT

Kamala Harris Will Not Run for Governor of California in 2026

UP NEXT

California Under Tsunami Advisory After Magnitude 8.7 Earthquake

UP NEXT

As Trump Cuts Education, Candidates Line Up for California’s Top Schools Job

UP NEXT

What’s Behind California’s Frozen Housing Market?

Fresno’s Dog Daze Fest Returns With The Chainsmokers Headlining

4 hours ago

Willow the Streetwise Poodle Mix Gets a Second Chance

5 hours ago

Newsom Wants Voters to Weigh In on New Congressional Districts in November

5 hours ago

Kia America Recalls 201,149 US Telluride Vehicles

6 hours ago

US Reviewing Visa Denial for Venezuelan Little League Players, State Department Says

6 hours ago

Hamas Says It Won’t Disarm Unless Independent Palestinian State Established

6 hours ago

Gifford Fire Grows to 23,588 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties

6 hours ago

Fresno Donates Firefighting Gear to Sister City Guadalajara

6 hours ago

Corruption Scandal Puts Mexico’s President on Defense Against Trump

7 hours ago

US Judges Speak Out About Death Threats, ‘Swattings,’ and ‘Pizza Doxings’

23 hours ago

India Will Buy Russian Oil Despite Trump’s Threats, Officials Say

NEW DELHI — Indian officials said Saturday that they would keep purchasing cheap oil from Russia despite a threat of penalties from Presiden...

1 hour ago

A view shows oil pump jacks outside Almetyevsk in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia June 4, 2023. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

India Will Buy Russian Oil Despite Trump’s Threats, Officials Say

A Lao man deported from the U.S. holds up his non-national ID card - a document that defines his legal status in the country he left behind decades ago, and to which he has now returned, in Vientiane, Laos, July 31, 2025. REUTERS/Phoonsab Thevongsa
3 hours ago

The US Said It Had No Choice but to Deport Them to a Third Country. Then It Sent Them Home

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on his way to New Jersey from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., August 1, 2025. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara

4 hours ago

Fresno’s Dog Daze Fest Returns With The Chainsmokers Headlining

After surviving more than six months alone on the streets, a 15-pound poodle mix named Willow is now safe and learning to trust humans again. (Mell's Mutts)
5 hours ago

Willow the Streetwise Poodle Mix Gets a Second Chance

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to the press after a hearing on the use of National Guard troops amid federal immigration sweeps, at the California State Supreme Court in San Francisco, California, U.S., June 12, 2025. (Reuters FIle)
5 hours ago

Newsom Wants Voters to Weigh In on New Congressional Districts in November

2025 Kia Telluride is displayed during the Los Angeles Auto Show, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 21, 2024. (Reuters File)
6 hours ago

Kia America Recalls 201,149 US Telluride Vehicles

Venezuelan baseball player Abraham Gutierrez, a member of Cacique Mara, a baseball youth team that will not be participating in the 2025 Little League World Series after their U.S. visa was denied, prepares for a practice session in Maracaibo, Venezuela, August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Gaby Oraa TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
6 hours ago

US Reviewing Visa Denial for Venezuelan Little League Players, State Department Says

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend