A major issue that remains on the front burner when it comes to the California Moving and Storage Association (CMSA) and the broader moving industry around the country is AB 5 and the labor code modifications to the concept of Independent Contractors vs. Misclassified Employees. One of the tracts to address the challenge is the California Trucking Association’s (CTA) Federal Court litigation, CTA v. Bonta. Their case is currently waiting for a hearing at the US Supreme court on the issue of the lower court’s decision to initially exclude enforcement of AB 5 on Federally defined Motor Carriers during the term of the litigation. On May 24, the Solicitor General of the United States (Solicitor General) filed her brief in the matter of CTA v. Bonta, the industry’s challenge to AB 5 related to Federally defined Motor Carriers. Our position is that, related to our industry, this case would potentially provide an exemption for pure interstate van line drivers and others who only handle interstate shipments.

As you may have seen, the Solicitor General’s office is recommending that the CTA’s cert petition be denied. Meaning, the brief states that the US Supreme Court should not hear this case.

This outcome was not unexpected, as this position of Solicitor General is a President Biden appointee, and the recommendation reads as a proponent of the administration’s agenda. The CTA and others remain optimistic that the United States Supreme Court (Court) will ultimately grant the cert petition.

The CMSA has donated $28,700.00, the result of a request to membership, to CTA litigation fund to defend the industry’s position on AB 5.

Our business is based on change, for most a move is one of the more significant changes in their life. Yet when the change impacts us directly, we can still feel uneasy. One significant change directly impacting our industry is the dramatic increase in both cost and demand for commercial warehouse space. Over the last number of years, we have seen an increase in demand as a result of the recently legalized marijuana industry’s need for space and its willingness to pay a significant premium to existing market prices. We have also seen what Amazon has done to the marketplace. Now we are seeing an almost insatiable demand for space from manufacturing and distribution, as their long-held practice of right-on-time distribution has failed in the pandemic era of lockdowns and log jams. Several long-term and successful CMSA movers with significant commercial real estate holding have been impacted by this market demand.

     On June 1, longtime CMSA member Beverly Hills Transfer and Storage closed its doors. After almost 100 years and two CMSA Chairmen, father and son, Ralph and Frank Rolapp respectively (we almost had a third generation when Frank’s son Terry Pettigrew Rolapp served on the CMSA Executive Committee several years ago) have sold their warehouse to a company that will not use the space for house goods or O & I storage. Another longtime Allied agent and CMSA, Schick Moving and Storage, whose founder Art Schick was also a CMSA Chairman, has ceased its moving and storage operations and is leasing its warehouses to non-moving entities.

June 2022 - CMSA Communicator