California Can Become The Second State To Pass A Freelance Isn't Free Act

This isn't the workforce of 1975 any more. The amount of workers who spend significant parts of their lives as contract, freelance or independent workers taking on jobs for multiple clients, has exploded. With that explosion has come increased job flexibility and the mooting of long-established labor laws like those about wage theft. They just don't apply and breach of contract lawsuits, while important, don't pay the bills when clients don't pay on time. 

The Freelance Isn't Free Act is a wage theft law for 2024 that protects the freelance workforce. New York was the first state to adopt it, and California may be next with SB 988 from San Francisco senator Scott Weiner. The bill has been proceeding smoothly through the Legislature, but the very last steps are always the hardest. 

Freelance workers with horror stories of long-delayed payments that messed up your life: This is the time to stand up and say something on behalf of all your fellow freelancers. If you have this kind of story in your past or present and would be willing to talk to the press or to legislators, please let us know via email at tracy@media-alliance.org.  

World's Worst Customer Service Under Scrutiny

Ah, cable companies. The reliable winners of America's Most Hated Companies year after year. Soaring rates, bundled services, throttled Internet; the list goes on. We give them an exclusive monopoly on our public right of way and in return we get service so bad that an entire streaming industry has grown up to try to get away from them. Our local friend is Comcast, but Spectrum and Cox in the southern part of California are just as maddening. 

The cable part of cable company services is regulated in CA by a law called DIVCA, which was a giveaway back in 2006, and has remained untouched ever since. Finally in 2021, a little teensy change was made and the regulator (the CPUC) was given the ability to set customer service standards for cable. You'd think a regulator could already do that, but DIVCA was written to make sure that they couldn't. 

Public hearings on what these customer service standards should be are coming up and your participation is wanted. The companies are notorious for filling these things up with their own people to say they are fabulous and that is what will happen if the public doesn't pay attention. 

MA is collaborating with the Alliance for Community Media, which is the association of the public access channels that cable companies provide on their system and which they regularly starve of funding and equipment, on prep sessions for the public hearings. Join us on Zoom on August 7 or September 12th for lively and brief prep session to get up to speed and prepare your comment. Sessions are at 10am or 7pm on either date. 

The CPUC's public hearings will be held live in Sacramento on August 14th from 1-3pm and 5-7pm, live in Monterey Park on September 5th from 1-3pm and 5-7pm and virtual on September 19 from 1-3pm and 5-7pm. Save the dates!

Stop The Greenlighting of Facial Recognition

Despite a plethora of evidence that facial recognition technology erodes civil rights and has big problems accurately recognizing faces that are darker-toned, female or young, police remain entranced with the power of the technology. As we recently found out in San Francisco, even a municipal ban doesn't keep them from using it. As we face a wave of reactionary proposals about public safety, we have legislators proposing bone-headed "compromises" that make things worse rather than better. 

Enter San Francisco assemblyperson Phil Ting. After failing to renew the moratorium on facial recognition use on body cameras that he sponsored in 2018, Ting decided on a new approach; namely let 'em use it but make sure it can't be the sole source of an arrest. 

It's a perfect example that something that sounds good until you think about it. By regulating with ONE sentence, Ting's bill implicitly allows (and fails to prevent) a world of bad things: the use of third party face databases like ClearView AI's stolen collection, the use of the state's DMV photos in criminal lineups without consent, facial recognition searches to find out the names of people present at protests and public gatherings, and live use during traffic stops where a mis-identification can be fatal. 

It's crap, but it is pretty late in the legislative process and it is still alive. But we have a chance to make it go away this month in the Legislature's black box appropriations process. Let them know you hate this. For time reasons, we ask you use the ACLU's action page. You can opt out of future contact with them if you want. 

We are powered by your donations. Become a member!