Drivers for gig companies like Uber and Lyft gained the right to unionize in California on Friday, thanks to a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The bill allows unions representing drivers to bargain for better wages and benefits and could serve as a model for other states given the size of California’s ride-hailing industry — about 800,000 drivers, according to the bill’s backers. Only Massachusetts has a similar law, which was passed through a ballot measure last year.

The bill could help resolve a yearslong fight in which driver groups have pushed for employee status, which confers protections like a wage floor and the right to unionize, while gig companies resisted. Those companies have long maintained that workers should be considered independent contractors and said that making dri

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