Renewing California's Promise 2010: Restore, Rebuild, Revive

Labor's Economic Recovery Agenda

As layoffs mount, we are not just struggling to maintain healthcare benefits or get a cost of living increase, we are scraping to put food on the table and keep roofs over our children’s heads. Wages continue to stagnate while we’re losing 50,000 jobs a month, spiking unemployment to a post-World War II record. Budget cuts, furloughs, and foreclosures have unhinged our state’s once stable middle class. Our social safety net has been ripped to shreds and no longer supports the most vulnerable among us.

The perfect storm of job loss, slashed wages, massive cuts in state spending and skyrocketing health care costs threatens to drown any chance of an economic recovery. In construction, our members are seeing unemployment rates of up to 30 percent. Tens of thousands of school employees have lost their jobs. State workers are suffering from a 15 percent wage cut and working without a contract. Public and private sector workers are being paid less to do more, facing additional layoffs, wage and benefit reductions and the constant fear of losing their jobs. The only way for California to emerge from this deep, dark recession is to invest in the creation of good jobs with decent pay and benefits.

Federal stimulus funds have mitigated our job loss and begun to spur economic activity in our state. But much more needs to be done. We need additional federal funds to be distributed to states as quickly as possible.

This recovery agenda will put us back on the road to Renewing California’s Promise.

1. Rebuild California’s Crumbling Infrastructure

For too long, our state’s roads, transportation and water systems, hospitals, and schools have been deteriorating and neglected. Our public infrastructure has been slashed, preventing government from functioning effectively. In the global economy, we must invest in the infrastructure that supports the movement of goods from ships to maritime terminals to trucks to rail, creating good jobs each step of the way. We should prioritize infra­structure projects based on the needs of our state and the importance of good job creation. Investing in projects like building high speed rail, retrofitting and weatherizing public buildings, creating a maritime highway, and expanding broadband access will create sustainable, year-round jobs, advance the public interest, and attract new businesses to California. As we rebuild, every effort must be made to buy materials made in America and in California. We should be manufacturing, rather than importing, the goods necessary to rebuild this state.

2. Invest in a 21st Century Workforce

Business and government need a trained and skilled workforce to get the job done and our economy needs workers with good wages and benefits to grow and prosper. Training must begin in primary school and should continue through career technical education, worker training programs, apprenticeship programs, career ladders, and higher education. The most successful training comes from our unions, through mentor training, where apprentices learn from journey level union members. Funding these programs will spark innovation and create the skilled workforce California needs to compete both nationally and globally.

3. Enact the Middle Class Bill of Rights

Working families share the same belief – if we play by the rules, pay our taxes and work hard, the promise of California can be ours. That belief is no longer a reality. Even though we are paying our fair share in taxes, middle class families are getting less in return and bearing the brunt of the state’s drastic budget cuts. Our schools, colleges, and universities are dramatically underfunded, while our safety and quality of life has been compromised by cutbacks to police and firefighters, and other vital services. Our health, environment and economic security are at risk as the state continues to slash basic necessary services to our communities. At the same time, many wealthy corporations are getting a free ride, bleeding the state of billions of dollars in corporate tax giveaways and blocking the collection of new sources of revenue, such as oil and tobacco taxes. A Middle Class Bill of Rights clearly defining our demands as residents of this state will protect and promote responsible stewardship of our public dollars.

4. Repair the Safety Net

Laid off workers stay awake at night worried about their lost income and health care. Injured workers are denied medical treatment and adequate benefits. Too many workers are denied basic labor rights, like minimum wage and overtime. Seniors, people with disabilities, and children are faced with losing the assistance they depend upon for survival. By providing necessary support to the vulnerable and those most impacted by the economic crisis, we not only provide a lifeline to families and neighborhoods in need, but also create vital economic stimulus to put our state on the road to recovery. Repairing the safety net is both morally imperative and fiscally responsible.

5. Develop and Implement an Economic Vision

In addition to shoring up our traditional sectors, we must attract new and diverse enterprises in California, those that capitalize on the new economy and new technologies. Targeted efforts to partner with our university systems and community colleges to attract investment and create industry clusters are needed to grow our state economy. A sustainable economy will be based on rebuilding our middle class through good jobs and a voice at work.
 

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For more information, contact Sara Flocks, Policy Coordinator, California Labor Federation, at 510-663-4033.