The Traveling Road Show
Support for New Jersey's independent-contractor rule isn't coming from the public. It's coming from a troupe that peddles snake-oil data.
Back in the days of the Old West, there was an event called the traveling road show. Small-town folks could step right up to watch the magic trick or hear the tall tale. “Be prepared to be amazed!” the salesman would exclaim as he demonstrated miracle cures and tonics for every conceivable ache or pain.
This is where the term “snake-oil salesman” originated. Guys would actually dissect snakes in front of crowds at local fairs to convince the people there was medicine inside.
New Jersey is experiencing a modern-day version of the Old West road show right now, with regard to proposed rulemaking at the Department of Labor & Workforce Development.
Regular readers of this Substack have seen—in great detail—how the entities pushing for widespread reclassification of New Jersey’s independent contractors have mischaracterized data and research, engaged in circular report-writing, used antiquated data from as long ago as 1984, made sweeping generalizations based on limited anecdotes, buried the true source of research, conflated illegal-immigration problems with employee misclassification, and more.
I think of all this as snake-oil data.
And it’s coming from representatives of unions and union-friendly organizations that, for many years, have moved around from state to state, with more than a few stops in Washington, D.C., urging policymakers to believe there is a problem of rampant employee misclassification.
Then, they promise in their big sales pitch: Widespread restrictions on independent contracting are the guaranteed cure.
There’s no meaningful public support for the rulemaking that New Jersey’s Labor Department has proposed. Only eight individuals filed written public comments in support of the proposal—out of an estimated 9,500 written comments the Labor Department received. Not a single individual spoke in favor of this rule proposal at the public hearing back in June, either. All the witnesses there to support the proposal were either employed by unions, or affiliated with organizations that have strong union ties.
Put another way, the support that New Jersey’s Labor Department has received is coming almost exclusively from the traveling road show.
On the chart below, the left side lists the names of unions and other organizations whose representatives spoke in support of New Jersey’s rulemaking at the public hearing, and/or filed written comments in support. To the right in the chart, you can see which of those same organizations—in an effort now spanning the better part of a decade—also supported California’s Assembly Bill 5 to restrict independent contractors in that state, New Jersey’s Senate Bill 4204 that was based on California’s AB5, and/or the federal PRO Act that would inject AB5’s regulatory language into federal labor law as a way to target independent contractors everywhere.
Look at the amount of crossover in the top dozen or so groups on the list:
The cast of characters from California and Washington are in New Jersey right now. And while their show may be new to some legislators and onlookers in Trenton, their script hasn’t hardly changed one bit.
What we are experiencing with New Jersey’s proposed rulemaking is not government of, by and for the people. The people have spoken in numbers that amazed longtime onlookers in Trenton, filing an estimated 9,500 written public comments. The people are 99% opposed to what is happening at New Jersey’s Labor Department.
Instead, we are experiencing government of, by and for the traveling road show of unionists who have targeted New Jersey as part of a nationwide strategy to try and reclassify independent contractors as unionizable employees.
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain
If we take New Jersey’s written public comments at face value, some of the organizations urging the Labor Department to act appear to be first-time participants in this traveling road show. They’re in the bottom part of my chart.
But dig a little deeper into some of those public comments, and it’s clear that a few nifty tricks are going on behind the curtain.
One example is the Public Justice Center, a multimillion-dollar nonprofit in Maryland that filed a public comment in New Jersey, but that does not appear to have supported California’s AB5 or the federal PRO Act.
However, the Public Justice Center’s 2024 annual report states that the organization’s many partners include 1199SEIU, the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, the National Employment Law Project, SEIU 328J and Unite Here! Local 7. The SEIU, like the AFL-CIO and the National Employment Law Project, has been a key player in pushing freelance busting all over the country.
So even though the Public Justice Center appears to have filed a one-off written public comment in New Jersey, its underlying partners have in fact been part of the traveling road show for years.
A similar thing is happening with the Coalition for Healthy Ports NY/NJ, which also filed what appears to be a one-off written public comment in New Jersey. Its leaders are the following groups:
Clean Water Action, a multimillion-dollar nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.
Ironbound Community Corporation, a multimillion-dollar nonprofit based in Newark, N.J.
Earthjustice, a San Francisco-based nonprofit whose net assets were more than $244 million last year
New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, a multimillion-dollar nonprofit based in Newark, N.J.
South Ward Environmental Alliance, a coalition that focuses on air and water quality
Teamsters Local 469, which is in New Jersey
The Teamsters have long been primary players in freelance-busting efforts nationwide. Earthjustice supported California’s AB5.
So even though the Coalition for Healthy Ports NY/NJ appears to have filed a one-off public comment in New Jersey, its underlying partners have been pushing freelance busting for years, as well.
Again, this is all part of the traveling road show. And this show is a modern marvel, all right—one that is now dangerously close to getting the State of New Jersey to finalize rulemaking that attorneys say “almost entirely eviscerates” any chance of establishing independent-contractor status, and poses “an existential threat to flexible, independent work.” Even though the results of this kind of policymaking have been nothing like the sales pitch we’ve all heard for years now in New Jersey and at the federal level and out in California.
I swear, when these folks sit down anywhere to testify, all I hear anymore is: “Step right up, folks, and prepare to be amazed.”
If only they weren’t causing so much real pain and suffering, it really would be quite the show.
Kim, thanks. Do you know why the DOL is taking so long to issue a final rule? There's a new governor in NJ. Is she taking undecided so far?