Last week, California legislators passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), expanding legal protections to more than a million workers, including gig workers like rideshare drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft, who had been misclassified as “independent contractors.” The misclassification scheme is popular in Silicon Valley as well as industries like trucking, construction, and even adult entertainment, because it shifts risks and operating costs onto workers while maintaining company control over the price, pace, and style of labor.

Worst of all, misclassified workers are legally barred from organizing unions. As part of a broader divide-and-conquer attack on worker organizing, companies have exploited misclassification to slash unions’ membership rolls and undermine wages, benefits, and protections for all workers.

Naturally, Uber, Lyft, and other companies fought tooth and nail to block AB 5. Instead of accepting defeat, they’re escalating their resistance by threatening to bring a ballot measure to undo the law in 2020 while promising lawsuits to delay its implementation.