Y Combinator President Garry Tan I used social platform X On Tuesday, he again expressed his displeasure with elected officials representing San Francisco, home of the storied accelerator.
This time, he slammed California Congressman Matt Haney over his late-night email bill. Mr. Haney serves in San Francisco's equivalent of the state House of Representatives.
legalize hard labor
Haney is spreading nonsense again, from the man who killed Algebra and started the fentanyl crisis in the Tenderloin https://t.co/SGJ9eGwW4f
— Garry Tan 💥♻️ e/acc (@garrytan) April 2, 2024
The tweet read, “Legalize hard labor. Haney is spreading yet another nonsense from the man who killed algebra and started the fentanyl crisis in the Tenderloin.” I posted a thread “Is this a foreign work?”
Haney can be described as Tan's “favorite punching bag.” Back in 2016, Haney led the San Francisco Public Schools Board when the district was debating removing algebra from middle schools. This course was then reinstated in 2024. That Tan did not support his previous move is evident in several tweets, including the one below. April 2023, October 2022 and June 2021.
Meanwhile, in 2022, Mr. Haney was appointed chairman of the California Opioid Commission, and Mr. Tan was appointed chairman of the commission. tweeted“Politics as usual puts an incompetent super, who presided over thousands of fentanyl deaths in the San Francisco area, in charge of the California Opioid Commission. Matt Haney to support recovery and treatment I haven’t done anything to…”
Haney defended his work fighting the opioid crisis. February LinkedIn Posts. He cited AB1976, which he said would “build on California's existing requirement that employers provide workers with 'appropriate first aid supplies.'” His goal is to create a kit that can use the life-saving drug naloxone “as a fire extinguisher.”
What drew Tan's ire was Haney's bill, AB 2751, which would give employees the “right to hang up” after agreed-upon working hours. This means that unless there is an emergency, there is a legal right to ignore any subsequent phone calls, emails or text messages sent, and employers who violate the law may be subject to fines, the San Francisco Standard reported. Ta.
Haney told the magazine: It should be available to everyone, regardless of the presence of a smartphone. ”
As Tan hints, the point of this bill is not to prohibit people from working long hours if they wish, but to prohibit companies from imposing on workers the expectation that they will always be available. It is worth pointing out that. But this idea runs counter to the startup hustle culture that is part of the YC world, especially in the early days, where dedication to work is valued.
Tan's recent tweets finding fault with the California lawmaker are not unusual. In January, he went on a violent rant against X about seven supervisors in San Francisco. He later apologized, explaining that the tweet was intended as an apparent reference to a popular rap song, and later deleted the tweet.
But that wasn't the end. In February, three San Francisco supervisors received threatening letters at their homes that included Tan's photo and the words, “I wish you and your loved ones a slow and painful death.”
TechCrunch spoke to Supervisor Aaron Peskin about the letter at the time, and Peskin said he doesn't believe Tan was directly responsible for anyone sending the letter. However, Mr. Peskin said Mr. Tan's tweets had a threatening tone that was targeted at individuals, not just policy debates, and was “harmful to democratic debate.”
Tan and Haney did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication. Y Combinator declined to comment.