Newsom's Gig Worker Union Bill: A Fast-Track to Automation and Unemployment

EDITOR'S NOTES

The Gateway Pundit called it like it is in “Gavin Newsom Just Gave California’s 800,000 Uber and Lyft Drivers a One-Way Ticket to the Unemployment Line.” For once, mainstream conservative media didn’t bury the lead. Newsom, in typical autocrat fashion, wrapped a political landmine in the language of “dignity” and “choice,” while setting a half-million working-class Californians up for displacement, automation, or straight-up job loss.

The press called it a victory for labor. I call it another state-mandated economic suicide note. Let’s dig in.

Derek Wolfe Oct 6, 25

The Union Mirage: Choice Disguised as Coercion

Governor Gavin Newsom wants to give Uber and Lyft drivers “a voice.” That sounds noble until you realize what he’s really giving them is a one-way ticket to redundancy. The bill — AB 1340 — allows so-called “independent” contractors to unionize on an industry level. Which means: Uber and Lyft drivers, who once enjoyed the freedom to clock in, work when they want, and keep the state off their backs, are now being absorbed into the old, bloated machinery of labor cartels.

That’s not liberty. That’s conscription. These folks didn’t ask for a union. They didn’t ask to be labeled “employees.” They signed up to be independent. The state — in its infinite arrogance — just decided they knew better.

Markets Work—Until the State Interferes

Let’s be real. This isn’t about fairness. It’s about control. When you inject unionized wage mandates and benefit packages into a fragile, margin-driven business like rideshare, you do two things:

You price out the bottom-tier workers — the part-timers, the immigrants, the in-betweeners who rely on gig work to float them through tough times.
You fast-track automation — because the moment you make human labor more expensive than silicon, capitalists will choose robots every single time.

That's not speculation — that's math.

Newsom’s plan doesn’t empower drivers. It sets fire to the one flexible, low-barrier employment path left in a state already strangled by taxes, regulations, and broken promises. And for what? So the SEIU can skim dues off a new pool of coerced members?

Who Loses? Everyone Who Isn’t in on the Grift

AB 1340 was cooked up behind closed doors by SEIU operatives, corporate execs, and politicians who never missed a lunch. The working poor — the folks this law supposedly protects — weren’t invited to the table. And if you think they’ll be driving five years from now, you haven’t been paying attention.

Uber and Lyft are bleeding cash and looking for any excuse to ditch drivers entirely. This bill gives them the green light. By the time the ink dries on the collective bargaining agreements, the companies will have beta-tested their autonomous fleets, gutted their human workforce, and moved on — leaving drivers with a union card and no job to use it on.

Newsom's Playbook: Say One Thing, Burn Everything

Gavin Newsom governs like a man who’s never had to meet a payroll. He talks about worker dignity, but signs bills that kill jobs. He lectures about fairness, but cuts deals with corrupt labor bosses. This isn’t about the gig economy — it’s about expanding the power of the state and its cronies at the expense of anyone who just wants to hustle, drive, and be left alone.

You Want the Truth? Here It Is

Unionizing gig work kills the very thing that makes it work — flexibility. It trades autonomy for bureaucracy and labels it progress.
Higher mandated wages = fewer jobs. When labor gets more expensive, companies replace people with machines — always have, always will.
The “glory days” of rideshare weren’t a fluke — they were what happens when people are free to trade time for money on their own terms.
Government intervention destroys the bottom rung of the economic ladder — the one people climb when no one else will hire them.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Buy the Hype

This isn’t just about California. It’s a warning shot. When the state inserts itself into every private transaction — when it rewrites the terms of voluntary work and forces collectivist contracts onto unwilling individuals — you don’t get “worker empowerment.”

You get economic collapse disguised as social justice.

Don’t let them tell you this was about dignity. It was about control. Don’t let them tell you this helps the working man. It helps the machine. And when the dust settles, the only thing left will be a line of pink slips — and a governor shrugging from his penthouse.

Don’t wait for the collapse to hit you next.
Download Seven Steps to Protect Yourself from Bank Failure by Bill Brocius — Click Here to Get It
Because when the economy gets burned down in the name of “equity,” you’ll need more than good intentions to survive.